


Mononoke-ōji | Prince Mononoke

by tiredtiefling



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Mononoke-hime | Princess Mononoke
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Avatar (Avatar TV), Blood and Gore, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Demons, F/M, Gods, Idk what else to tag this lol, Inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender, Inspired by Studio Ghibli, M/M, Monsters, Multi, Nature, POV Sokka (Avatar), Retelling, Sokka (Avatar)-centric, Studio Ghibli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:08:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26503429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiredtiefling/pseuds/tiredtiefling
Summary: The world is out of balance as harmony between man, beasts, and gods frays and crumbles. Sokka, banished from his home after infection by a demon, travels to seek a cure from the Forest Spirit of the west. As he travels the country, he witnesses the ravages on nature by humans, and meets the vengeful Zuko and his family of dragons. Will Sokka choose to bring peace between the humans and the forest, or will he side with Zuko and rain justice upon Iron Town?A crossover between Avatar: The Last Airbender and Princess Mononoke (with ATLA characters transposed into the Princess Mononoke story), and a focus on Zukka as a ship.Sokka is Ashitaka, Zuko is San, Azula is Lady Eboshi, and various animals from the ATLA universe serve as the fauna, including dragons in place of the wolves.A few details were altered for this variation - see the chapter notes for more info.Marked as a Teen rating for scary and dark imagery, violence and blood, and some sexual content and language, in line with the film’s PG-13 rating. An additional warning in the ‘graphic depictions of violence’ tag has been added as well.
Relationships: (which is very minor), Chan/Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 63





	Mononoke-ōji | Prince Mononoke

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfiction was inspired by a gorgeous piece of artwork by @aima015 on Twitter (happy belated birthday!) – you can find the piece here: https://twitter.com/aima015/status/1294668704186155009 
> 
> This crossover/retelling of Princess Mononoke using ATLA characters is mostly faithful to the original source material, however, a few details were altered to either fit the ATLA universe or to be more appropriate for the characters and story.
> 
> Overall, the biggest change from the original ATLA story to this one is the canon divergence, with this taking place in a timeline without the Avatar, where the Fire Nation forced the Southern Water Tribe to flee to the Earth Kingdom. Another change is that the characters are older – I was aiming to make both Sokka and Zuko in their 20s here, and Azula as well. I also introduced bending into the story where it meshed well, and altered some dialogue to be more in-character for specific people (e.g, Long Feng). And lastly, I imagine the dragons in this version to be significantly smaller than they are in canon, and reinterpreted Ran and Shaw to be Fang's hatchlings.
> 
> I tried my best to find fitting characters or creatures from the ATLA universe for the various roles, I hope the choices I made are fitting. The one exception to this is the introduction of Yakul as a new character, since it felt more appropriate for Sokka to have a deer-like steed to traverse the land instead of Appa, since Aang doesn't exist in this timeline.
> 
> Enjoy!

* * *

_In ancient times, a land lay covered in forests, where – from ages long past – dwelt the spirits of the Gods._

_Back then, man and beast lived in harmony – but as time went by…most of the great forests were destroyed._

_Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts who owed their allegiance to the Great Forest Spirit._

_For those were the days of gods…and of demons._

* * *

* * *

* * *

The trees buckled before collapsing with a deafening crash to the forest floor below, sending splintering wood flying about. A hulking, monstrous form of a creature, coated in a thick layer of ever-squirming black tendrils not unlike eels or worms, was making its way through the undergrowth, leaving any flora so much as grazed by its touch blackened with decay.

* * *

Elsewhere, Sokka was making his way across the foliage on the back of Yakul, his trusted fox-antelope. The red fur of his ride caught the golden light dappling through the leaves as they exited the thickest part of the copse, onto a dirt road framed by a mossy rock wall. Sokka hopped onto the top of the wall, examining their surroundings cautiously.

“Yakul! Come on, boy!” he urged his steed up a wooden ramp onto another path. He pulled himself up onto its back as he saw three figures approaching him through the tunnel-like passage.

“Girls!” he called to them. He recognized one as his younger sister, Katara.

“Sokka!”

“There’s something strange going on,” he said as he pulled to a stop in front of them, “You have to hurry – Gran-Gran wants everyone back to the village at once."

“We just came from Bato!”

“Did he see something?”

“Yes, in the forest, something’s wrong!” Katara reported.

“The birds have all gone,” Niyok said, concern clear on her face.

“And the animals too!” Nutha added.

“I’ll go to the watch tower, and check with Bato,” Sokka instructed, “Now you three hurry back home, and be quick about it!”

“Alright…be careful!” Katara called after her brother as he pushed forward with Yakul.

As he rode up to Bato’s outpost, he realized the girls were right – aside from the steady beat of Yakul’s paws on the dirt, and the quiet whistle of wind over the grass, it was deathly silent where normally birdsong and animal chatter should be.

Bato’s guard-tower was a flimsy hourglass of dried logs tied with rope, and the wood groaned under Sokka’s weight as he clambered onto the ladder. He paused as he made his way up, peering into the edge of the forest that was submerged in shadow. At first he thought his senses were playing tricks on him, but Yakul also lifted his head suddenly from his grazing, flicking his ears about anxiously.

There was something moving at the edge of the forest – a swimming vision of darkness that disappeared from view as quickly as it had appeared. If Sokka had blinked, he would have missed it. He gripped the bough tight.

“Something’s there…” Sokka murmured to himself, before climbing up to Bato’s roost over the rest of the precarious tower.

“Bato, did you see it too?” he asked the hooded man seated next to him.

“I did,” Bato said with a grunt, “It isn’t human.”

Sokka tilted his head back towards their little settlement, which was in easy view from the outpost. Blue tents of varying sizes lined the edges of a clearing in the woods, with a plume of pale white smoke from a signal fire billowing up into the sky.

“Gran-Gran’s calling everybody back to the village,” he said.

“There, look,” Bato hissed, drawing Sokka’s attention back to the task. He drew his boomerang from his back, holding his arm up in a steady arch. The sun receded behind a cloud, plunging the world into a pale blue darkness as his arm twitched expectantly.

Something was writhing and squirming in the crevices of the rock wall, like black pulsing tentacles. The lowest hanging branches of the trees above turned a sickly orange, withering and rotting away. The sickness spread quickly to the nearby bark and branches before the strange pulsating blackness disappeared.

For a heartbeat, silence.

Then, the monster burst forth through the wall. Disgustingly swollen and covered in violently writhing coils of black, with staring, beady red eyes that trained forward, unblinking. Each wide stride of those eight legs left only more steaming destruction in its wake, rotting the grass and leaving loose tar-like curls behind its stubby tail.

“It’s some kind of demon!” Bato said hoarsely, choked by fear.

“A demon?!”

As the creature passed the line where the horizon’s shadow became sunlight, the tendrils twitched and rose into the air, revealing what they were coating – an enormous wooly-pig, wool stained dark and tusks bared in a pained snarl as glazed, unseeing eyes stared dead ahead. It made a hideous squeal as the curtain of black reared up into the sky and came crashing down, submerging the pig again. It seemed to undergo an internal battle, pulses of tentacles bulging outward, before the monstrosity gained control of itself and charged right towards the base of the watch tower – towards Yakul.

“Run, Yakul!” Sokka shouted to his dear friend, “ _Run!_ ”

But his fox-antelope stood stock-still, trembling visibly as his legs locked with fear as the abomination drew near.

Sokka had no choice, throwing his boomerang down swiftly and lodging it in the wood at the base of the outpost. Startled, Yakul came to his senses, bolting away and barely avoiding reaching arms. The monster crashed into the tower, thrashing wildly and sending it toppling. Thinking fast, Sokka grabbed hold of Bato’s cloak and jumped to the soft bushes of safety as the wood was sent cracking and crashing down the escarpment.

The demon was squirming in its vile way, appendages lashing out at random, before skittering down the cliff – right towards the settlement.

“It’s headed for the village…!” Sokka gasped, pulling himself free of the leaves, “I’ve gotta stop it!”

“Sokka! Wait!” Bato burst out, gripping the branches for support as Sokka leapt down, “Be careful, that thing is cursed! Don’t let it touch you!”

Sokka grabbed his boomerang from the shattered base of the outpost and hurried to the top of the rocks, calling for his steed.

“Here! Yakul!” he whistled, as his fox-antelope hurried to join him. Sokka hopped upon its back as they raced after the demon, nimbly navigating dangerous slopes and thick undergrowth. The beast was to their left, tearing through the forest with no caution or care.

As Yakul found the main dirt road, a great crashing resounded behind them – now the monster was chasing them.

“Calm your fury, o mighty lord!” Sokka begged, holding up a hand to try and stop the demon as Yakul kept racing towards the village, “Whatever you may be, god or demon, please! Leave us in peace!”

At the Water Tribe settlement, Katara and the sisters were making their way down the grassy hill towards the signal fire, when they heard a commotion behind them. Turning, they gasped in horror as Sokka zipped out of the undergrowth, the demon hot on his tail. It came to a sudden halt, turning its attention towards the girls. Seeming to find them a more favorable target, it barreled right for them.

“A monster…!” Niyok cried out.

“Come on!” Katara barked, as the three began sprinting to safety.

Sokka tore in front of the demon, still trying to speak sense to this thing that was once a pig.

“Go back! _Please!_ Leave our village alone! Stop, please! Stop!”

The three girls were running as fast as they could, but the slippery grass sent Niyok’s foot sliding out from under her, crashing to the ground.

“Get up!” Katara shouted, as Nutha grabbed her sister. The demon was bearing down on them, there was no time – Katara opened the flask at her hip, readying some water to bend.

“KATARA!” Sokka cried out. He had no choice now – he readied his boomerang, throwing it right into the beady red eye of the monster.

“Run!” he urged the girls.

“Come on! Hurry!” Katara said, lifting Niyok up with Nutha and all but dragging her back to the village.

Sokka gingerly approached the beast, only for it to suddenly send dozens of limbs about. Yakul bolted, but he was not fast enough – one of the appendages found Sokka’s right arm, coiling the many tendrils around it. It burned like the wrathful flame of a firebender, searing Sokka’s skin and making him cry out. He forcibly wrenched his arm free, forcing Yakul to charge back to the beast. Despite the wormy curls still encircling his forearm, he forced himself to concentrate, pulling his sword from its scabbard. He held it up, ready to throw.

The blackness had receded again, exposing the wooly-pig underneath. With one swift strike, he threw the sword directly into the forehead of the monster, hearing its ugly squeal as Yakul raced out of range again. This time, however, the appendage slowed behind them and drifted to the ground, like a dying snake weakly encircling itself with what energy it had left. The wooly-pig quivered as the disgusting tendrils began to expel from its body.

Yakul, sensing they were a safe distance away, slowed to a stop, as Sokka turned his attention now to his arm. Adrenaline had allowed him to ignore it, but now the agonizing pain was far too much to dismiss. The coils of black turned grayish and melted, like hot oil scalding into his flesh through his sleeve. Vile-smelling smoke billowed from the wound as Sokka gripped his wrist, quaking in pain as sweat beaded on his forehead. He forced himself to look up at the wooly-pig as it leaned to the side and slowly keeled to the ground with a deafening thud, the blackness having melted away into the grass.

“They killed it!” announced a watchman.

The townsfolk by the signal fire began to cheer and celebrate, raising their spears and torches in joy and announcing the monster’s death.

“SOKKA!” Katara gasped, bolting past the crowd and up to her brother’s side.

“Fetch Kanna!” barked another tribesman, “And don’t put the fire out yet.”

Yakul gently carried his charge close to the approaching villagers as Sokka hunched over on his back, breathing hard.

“Sokka…!” Katara whimpered, gently pulling him off the fox-antelope and onto the soft grass, “Are you alright…?”

“Katara, don’t touch it, this wound is evil…” Sokka panted as the townsfolk gathered around them, grabbing a fistful of dirt and rubbing it onto the injury. Katara bended some water from her flask, encircling the arm to try and heal it, but the cool relief did not come as it always did. The burning still remained.

“You must keep away from him, all of you! Everyone stay back!” Kanna, better known to Sokka as his Gran-Gran, snapped as she approached the crowd.

“What should we do?!” Katara asked, afraid. Kanna handed her a large blue bottle, one brought up from the Southern Water Tribe’s original home, kept cool and pure in her tent.

“Take this and bend it over his wound, child, slowly,” she said, pulling the cork stopper. Katara obliged, ushering the water out and pouring it freely over Sokka’s arm, which he had ripped the sleeve off of. He winced and gritted his teeth against the bite, but it provided some relief.

Kanna approached the wooly-pig laying in the bloody grass. With almost all of the black filth gone, they could look more clearly at it, see brown wool stained with dirt and blood, see impressive tusks and darkened eyes. It was still breathing, a heavy and rumbling sound.

Kanna bowed to it humbly as she spoke.

“O nameless god of rage and hate, I bow before you.”

She bent at the waist yet again as some of the tribesmen knelt beside her in respect.

“A mound will be raised and funeral rites performed on this ground where you have fallen. Pass on in peace, and bear us no hatred.”

She dipped her head in respect as Sokka raised his.

“ ** _Disgusting little creatures,_** ” the massive pig spoke in a deep baritone bellow, blood gushing from its mouth as its lips moved, “ ** _Soon, all of you will feel my hate, and suffer as I have suffered..._** ”

Barely had he finished speaking when his eyes began to sink, his flesh began to recede and rot away, exposing putrid meat and muscle underneath. The townsfolk gagged and covered their noses at the stench as Sokka set his jaw, glaring as the pig’s corpse became skeletal in seconds before their eyes.

* * *

The town was uncomfortably quiet for the rest of the day, as the sun disappeared over the horizon and the moon rose palely into the sky – what should be a jubilant celebration of the slaying of the beast had now been tainted by the uncertain future of what should happen to their young male leader. Sokka’s father, the chief Hakoda, had been slain years ago in the siege the Fire Nation had brought upon the Southern Water Tribe years ago, leaving the shattered remnants of the already-miniscule colony to hurriedly escape north, to the Earth Kingdom’s east edges. And now, Sokka’s fate was being discussed in Kanna’s tent – and no one knew what the outcome would be.

Kanna was seated on the floor, throwing stones and bones atop a canvas and reading the mysterious language they spoke. Sokka sat cross-legged across from her, struggling to ensure his face betrayed no emotion as he listened to the clatter and clink. The other older men of the town were there as well, waiting for Kanna to pass judgement.

“…I’m afraid this is very bad,” Kanna said eventually, “The stones tell me the wooly-pig god came from far to the west. He had some kind of a poison inside him, driving him mad. A poisonous hatred that consumed his heart and flesh and turned him into a demon monster.”

She paused, looking over her markings, before tilting her head up.

“Sokka.”

Sokka sat up a little straighter.

“Yes.”

“Show everyone your right arm.”

Sokka obliged begrudgingly, undoing the clean bandages and lifting his forearm into view. The tan skin was now marred by ugly, purplish-black rings. The men gasped and grimaced at the sight.

“…what’s it mean?” Bato asked.

Kanna looked to Sokka, a deep sadness in her eyes.

“…my chief-to-be,” she said, “Are you prepared to learn what fate the stones have foretold you?”

“Yes,” Sokka said without hesitation, “I was prepared the very moment that I let my boomerang fly.”

Kanna nodded, always proud of how her grandson stood tall and strong even when everything was against him. She knew that what she was to tell him would be a devastating blow, the kinds of which the remnants of the Southern Water Tribe simply could not handle now – but it must be said.

“…the infection will spread throughout your whole body, bone and flesh alike. It will cause you great pain, then kill you.”

Sokka ducked his head. Though his expression held firm, he felt like a knife had been sunk into his chest and twisted hard.

“…is there no way we can stop it…?” Bato asked despairingly.

“The young chief-to-be got that wound by defending our village and saving our lives!” barked another tribesman.

“Do we just sit here and watch him die?!” yet another spoke up.

“You cannot alter your fate, my grandson,” Kanna said, “However…you can rise to meet it if you choose. Look at this.”

She reached into her sleeve and withdrew a lump of black, dropping it to the tent floor with a surprisingly substantial thud.

“This iron ball was found in the pig’s body. This is what hurt him so. It shattered his bones and burned its way deep inside him. _This_ is what turned him into a demon.”

Sokka narrowed his eyes at the little ball – it was so small, insignificant even, and yet so much destruction had abounded as a result.

“There is evil at work in the lands to the west, Chief Sokka,” Kanna continued, “It is your fate to go there and see what you can see with eyes unclouded by hate. You may find a way to lift the curse. Do you understand?”

“…yes,” Sokka said softly.

Master Pakku was seated at the edge of the tent, head hanging low. The furrows of age ran deep through his face – though he had moved from the Northern Water Tribe to the Southern one to marry Kanna, as he had wanted, it had only been a blissful few weeks before the siege came, and he was whisked away to the coasts of the Earth Kingdom with no way to return north.

“…we are the last of the Southern Water Tribe,” he said eventually, “It’s been five years since the Fire Lord destroyed our tribe and drove the remnants of our people to the Earth Kingdom. Some managed to survive here, but the blood of our tribe had grown thinner and weaker long before that. Now our last chief must cut his hair and leave us, never to return? Sometimes I think the gods are laughing at us.”

The other men sat dismally as Sokka withdrew his sword, carefully cutting off his wolf-tail and feeling his shaggy hair fall loose. He could feel the others grieving behind him silently as he placed the lock of hair on the altar before bowing a bit.

“Our laws forbid us from watching you go, Sokka,” Kanna said somberly, “Whatever comes to pass now, you are dead to us forever.”

Sokka set his jaw, nodding a bit before getting up and exiting the tent.

“Farewell,” his grandmother said as he left. He hesitated, wanting to throw his arms around her and sob at the thought of never seeing his family again, but he held his head high and continued walking.

After gathering his meager belongings and hitching up Yakul from the stables, the two began their exodus from the village. Sokka had donned a long cloak to cover his body, with a silver helmet in the shape of a wolf’s head that he pulled on, and mask to cover his mouth. Only his pale blue eyes darted back and forth at the silent village as he secured himself to Yakul’s back and headed for the exit.

“…Sokka!”

He jerked his head up – it was Katara, rushing to his side from one of the tents.

“Katara! What are you doing here? You know it’s forbidden!”

“Do you think I care about that?!” she scoffed, “I came to give you _this_ , so you won’t forget your little sister.”

Her voice broke a little as she held her hands out – nestled in her palms was their grandmother’s betrothal necklace, which had been passed onto their mother, and then to Katara. The light pendant jewel bore the waterbending emblem.

“…our mother’s necklace…?” Sokka said as he picked it up, “Katara, I can’t take this…”

“Please keep it with you, Sokka, to protect you,” she said, eyes wet, “You must take it with you, please. I want you to have it, so you don’t…forget.”

“Katara, you know I could never forget you,” Sokka said gently. But his time was up. He urged Yakul onwards, galloping out of the village. Katara trailed after him a few steps, watching him disappear into the forest, never to be seen again.

* * *

The Earth Kingdom countryside was gorgeous, with rolling hills above and valleys with glittering rivers below. Yakul’s dainty feet were made for the sheer mountains and rockier escarpments, but they both preferred the rolling green fields where the wind sent water-like ripples through the grass, reminding Sokka of his home. They paused on occasion to eat, sharing paltry rations out of sight, and waded across the deepest parts of rivers with their belongings held overhead or suspended on Yakul’s horns.

As they continued their pilgrimage west, Sokka stopped atop a hill to examine an enormous cloud of black smoke rising from the distance. He could hear screams and shouts as well, and the clang of blades clashing. Fire Nation banners were flying – some sort of raid, it seemed.

“…a battle…?” Sokka asked himself, looking out at the rice fields of the village and watching dozens of panicking villagers trying to escape, “No…a massacre.”

“Where are YOU going?!” snarled one of the aggressors, “Get back here, you coward!”

One of the men attempted to defend the fleeing women, only to have his arm violently cut off and his limp body stabbed into submission.

“They’re unarmed, move in!” another instructed.

Sokka leaned out, watching cautiously.

“Look! Up there, on the hill!” someone yelled behind him. He pricked his ears, looking back as a band of the brigands swarmed the base of his perch.

“It’s a warrior!”

“His head is mine!”

They were drawing bows and charging with spears and glaives. Yakul leapt forward, evading the fire and racing away as Sokka pulled his mask back up. He pulled his boomerang free, ready to engage as needed.

Up ahead, some of the women were desperately trying to lose the pillagers. One tripped, landing on the path as the bandit began to slash and hack at her backpack.

“You! Stop!” Sokka bellowed, readying his boomerang arm.

Suddenly, his skin began to crawl – literally. It looked like worms were writhing under his skin. His injury flared with pain, sending shooting fire up to his shoulder. He gritted his teeth, trying to ignore it, as he let the boomerang fly.

It flew at inhuman speeds, and the attacker’s raised arms found themselves knocked clean off. Yakul bolted past as Sokka struggled to catch his boomerang.

“Stop -!”

“M-my arm…! What’s happening to me…?!” he groaned.

“Stop him!”

“Hurry! Stop him before he gets away!”

“Let me pass!” Sokka demanded, readying his boomerang again, “I’m warning you!”

The brigand did not oblige, sending an arrow at him. He ducked before throwing his boomerang in return, and the pillager’s head came clean off. Sokka felt like vomiting at the sight, but he forced himself to keep watch until his boomerang was securely back in his hand, before he and Yakul made their getaway.

The second bandit slowed on his horse, looking to his headless ally, then back after Sokka.

“A demon…”

* * *

Yakul and Sokka found shelter in another forest, at a pathetic stream and waterfall. He took the moment to wash his wounds, hoping the cold water would calm its fury, but it barely seemed to make any change. He pulled his arm from the water, studying it.

“…the mark is getting bigger…”

After drinking from the waterfall, he and Yakul headed to a nearby hamlet. They were hungry and needed more food urgently.

The bustling marketplace was filled with all sorts – some sordid, and some less so. And among them was Long Feng, seated at a woman’s food stand.

“Are you selling soup or sewer runoff,” he grumbled to himself, before his attention was drawn to a gathering crowd nearby. The people were muttering to themselves, commenting on a stranger.

“And there he is now,” Long Feng chuckled, finishing the remnants of his stew and approaching the group.

A man was filling Sokka’s bags with cabbage leaves and rice. He handed the salesman a small pellet of something yellow.

“Will this be enough?” Sokka said softly, fastidiously fixing his mask over his face.

“Hey there! What are you trying to pull?! This isn’t money!” he spat, “Give me back my cabbages, you little thief!”

Before Sokka could speak, Long Feng stepped in.

“Excuse me, but might I inspect that?” he asked.

“Go ahead.”

He took the little pebble, examining it closely before blinking in surprise.

“…my god! But this is a lump of pure gold, you silly grocer.”

He glared.

“However, if it’s money you want, I’ll pay for the rice and take this nugget off your hands. Whataya say?”

By now the crowd had grown all the more significant around them.

“My good people!” Long Feng announced, “Is there a money changer who can tell us how much this is worth? No? Alright. Now, I’m just a merchant, but I’d say…three bags of rice at least.”

The populace gasped and chattered amongst themselves.

“That’s right! Maybe even more!”

Sokka was getting uncomfortable with the attention, taking Yakul’s reins and quickly heading towards the exit.

“Hey, wait a minute, where are you going?” Long Feng called after him, turning to follow.

“Where are YOU going, give me my gold!” the cabbage man shrieked, grabbing at Long Feng’s hand.

Once Long Feng was free, he raced after Sokka, who was heading away aboard Yakul.

“Hey! What’s your hurry!” he said, “You can’t just rush off now, we’ve only just met!”

Sokka was silent as the green-robed Earth Kingdom resident caught up to him.

“We have got your rice, and everything’s fine. You’re a man of few words, I understand. Well, don’t you even _think_ of thanking me. It was my pleasure. In fact, I should be thanking you, really. You see, I was caught in that battle. I saw what you did to those bandits.”

Sokka swiveled his eyes to look at this little man next to him.

“You fight like a demon! Where did you learn to fight like that?”

Sokka looked behind them – a group of thugs seemed to be trailing after them.

“I see you’ve noticed we’re being followed. That’s what we get for waiving that gold nugget around.”

Sokka bit back a comment.

“They’ll wait until we’re asleep, then slit our throats. What do you say we give them a little demonstration of how fast we can run?”

The ‘merchant’ took off, surprisingly fast. Sokka urged Yakul after him, the two speeding away too quickly to be reasonably followed.

It was sunset when they left the town, and they kept running until nightfall before taking refuge under some sort of dilapidated tree’s roots. Long Feng set up an iron cauldron over a small fire to prepare soup for them both as Sokka quietly told him his reason for journeying west.

“So, the demon monster turned out to be a giant wooly-pig,” Long Feng hummed to himself.

“I followed its trail westward through the mountains, to where the thieves were attacking those villagers,” Sokka continued, “But, then…”

“You lost it. Unfortunate. You see this place here?”

Long Feng gestured to their surroundings, to crumbled building remnants buried under mud and rocks.

“When I came here last, a few years back, this was a lovely little village. But then there must have been a flood, or a landslide, or a fire. The only sure thing is that everybody perished.”

Sokka furrowed his brow, looking over what were once lantern posts and rock paths.

“These days,” Long Feng continued, digging through his pack, “There are angry ghosts all around us. Dead from wars, sickness, starvation, and nobody cares.”

He removed some sort of dried meat wrapped in parchment, adding some of it to the soup.

“So, you say you’re under a curse, unfortunately so is the whole world.”

He taste-tested the soup, finding its viscosity and flavor agreeable.

“…I was wrong to fight in that village,” Sokka muttered, “Two men are dead because of me.”

“Fire Nation thugs. Nothing important. Here, hand me your bowl.”

Sokka obliged, handing his delicate blue porcelain dish over.

“My point is everybody dies, boy. Some now, some later. From brothel girl to Earth Kingdom king.”

Long Feng studied the bowl, impressed by it.

“I’ve heard them say that the Earth King has promised an entire hill of gold to anyone who can help him live forever. Beautiful bowl, I’ve seen one other like it.”

Sokka took his treasured dish back, cradling it for warmth.

“Have you ever heard of the Southern Water Tribe?”

Sokka stiffened.

“They’re said to be able to bend water. They also dress in deep blues like you.”

Sokka bowed his head, focusing on his soup, as Long Feng finished his first helping and went for another.

“Of course, they were wiped out by the Fire Lord years ago.”

Sensing Sokka’s tenseness, Long Feng chuckled goodnaturedly.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone where you’re from. Anyway, I’ve got much bigger fish to fry.”

Sokka hesitated, then reached into his pack, removing the iron ball they had found in the pig’s corpse.

“Have you ever come across anything like this before?”

Long Feng’s saccharine smile slipped as he took the pellet from Sokka’s outstretched hand with his chopsticks, examining it up close.

“…never have,” he said coolly.

“It came from the giant pig. It was inside him, and I’m sure it was that little ball of iron that killed him.”

Long Feng made a grunt, returning the ball. The two stared each other down briefly before Long Feng smirked.

“…there’s a place high in the mountains, far to the west of here. It is where the Spirit of the Forest dwells, and it's a very dangerous place for humans. To enter there is certain death.”

“The Spirit of the Forest…?”

“I've been told the beasts there are all giants, just as they were in the dawn of time.”

Long Feng resumed his meal, as Sokka quietly thought to himself. After a moment, he returned to his own bowl.

The next morning, when the sun was barely grazing the horizon, pale tendrils of light shining past bare tree branches, Sokka guided Yakul away. He bent at the waist towards the sleeping Long Feng in their shelter, before clambering aboard his fox-antelope and making way for the home of the Spirit of the Forest.

Unbeknownst to him, Long Feng was awake, opening an eye and smiling after Sokka.

“See you there, my friend,” he said quietly, before returning to the clutches of slumber.

* * *

It was pouring, rain so heavy that the cliffsides were flooding with wide, brown waterfalls. Why was it always such poor weather when the hippo-cow drive was returning home?

Fog was thick enough to cut with a knife as the men urged the hippo-cows forward despite their protesting bellows. Their cargo was precious, and necessary where they were going.

At the forefront of the procession was a woman with a dark black cloak and hair tied up in a bun, accompanied by a grumpy-looking man with gray sideburns.

“The sooner we get this rice home, the sooner we eat! Let’s move!” barked the woman past plush red lips.

A man rushed up to the two of them, panting.

“Coming this way! Dragons!”

The woman and her companion looked up over the mountains, past leafless trees. In the distance, they could see them – a red and blue duo of fierce beasts, bolting towards them, and on the back of one, a small blot of black with a blue mask.

“Don’t let the hippo-cows panic!” the woman instructed calmly as she and the others around them set up red umbrellas marked with the Fire Nation insignia, “Stay calm! Take up your positions!”

“Keep your powder dry! Make sure you wait for them to come within range!” added her guard.

As some guards prepared strange, thin cannons, others allowed sparks and smoke to dance on their hands.

The dragons were approaching, too young to fly. They were baring down on the drive, panting and snarling.

“Ready…” the woman said, “…and _fire!_ ”

The men lit their cannons with firebending, sending smoking shots at the two dragons. The black creature on the back of the first one pointed, and the two raced away, evading the remaining fire.

Elsewhere, Sokka could hear the dull sounds of explosions in the distance, trailing through the still-lush forest at the base of the cliffs.

After the dragons were a safe distance away, they turned, returning again for another try.

“Second round,” the woman announced, bored, “Fire!”

More gunfire rained down on the dragons, forcing them to scatter and retreat for good this time.

“…that was it?” the man asked, “They weren’t so big.”

“They’re just hatchlings,” the woman said coldly, “Wait until you see their father.”

The procession was standing still, waiting for orders to continue as they held the hippo-cows safe and calm.

“Where are they…?” one said, looking around.

Then, he came, from behind them. Flying over the devastated forest on bloodred wings.

“It’s Fang!” shouted the woman, readying herself.

The enormous dragon fell upon the hippo-cows, tearing into them with snapping jaws and billowing fire on those who got in his way. When his eye fell upon the woman, though, he tossed everything aside to charge her, sending countless men and hippo-cows off the edge of the cliff.

“Come on…” she said smugly, widening her stance.

He leapt for her, just as her companion fired his gun, lodging a bullet in his breast. She sent a blaze of blue fire erupting from her hands, engulfing the dragon – though his scales were resistant to the heat, the force of the blast forced him to stagger, sending him crashing down into the fog below.

“Ha! We killed him!” the man cackled.

“You forget he’s a god,” the woman said sternly, “It will take more than that.”

In the distance, the blue and red baby dragons began heading down the mountain to find their father, as the men tried to recover what living they had left, or pick up the dead to carry home. The hippo-cows moaned and protested, too afraid to push up.

“She certainly did some damage,” growled the man.

“We move out now.”

He turned to stare at her, shocked.

“But what about the men she pushed over the cliff?”

“They’re dead. Let’s get the living home.”

* * *

Sokka could hear running water ahead – a river would be an idyllic place to rest and hydrate. Not that the water was the purest – it was brown and grimey.

He could see items floating with the current – at first, just goods, then the bodies of hippo-cows, and then humans. He stared mutely at them, a twisting in his gut as he scanned the banks.

Then he gasped, hopping off of Yakul and bolting over – there was one here, flopped over the rocks.

Sokka held his hand over the open mouth, feeling breath.

“Still breathing…” he said softly, before hauling the man out by the shoulders. Once he was safe, Sokka traipsed over the rocks over the roaring water, looking for other possible survivors. There was one more, also unconscious but breathing. He carried him, checking them over for injuries.

Yakul suddenly lifted his head, ears twitching. Sokka jerked his head up, looking back. This sound was a different one. He pulled his mask up and readied his boomerang as he approached the dryer, moss-covered rocks. It was hard to track over the rush of water, but as he passed by a fallen tree, he stopped and looked out.

There was some sort of lumpy shape there, dark red. Could it be…?

Two creatures came from the woods – dragons! He could hardly believe it, sucking in a breath. One was blue, the other red. On the back of one was something, draped in blacks and reds and removing a blue mask. Sokka realized with wide eyes that it was a boy, barely older than he.

The boy hopped down as the lumpy shape stood, revealing itself to be a dragon as well, far larger than the other two. Perhaps their parent. He was bleeding from a wound in his chest, rumbling in pain. The boy rushed forward to examine the wound, before pressing up against it, sucking out blood with his mouth and spitting it aside.

The dragon tilted its head towards Sokka’s hiding place, growling deeply. It had seen him.

The boy looked up, seeming to stare directly into Sokka’s soul. He had shaggy black hair, and his left eye and ear were visibly scarred – a burn, most likely. And of course, he was smeared with dragon’s blood, all over his mouth, cheeks, and hands.

Sokka’s heart fluttered.

The boy stood up sharply, spitting out another gob of blood and wiping his mouth with the back of his arm. The elder dragon was still making gutteral noises behind him.

Sokka hesitated, then clambered up onto the fallen tree.

“My name is Sokka!” he called to them, “I’ve travelled far, from lands to the east. Are you ancient gods, and have I come at last to the realm of the Spirit of the Forest?”

The dragons and the boy did not answer, staring him down. Sokka held his breath, hoping to hear the boy speak.

The father dragon rose up, lumbering off quietly. The boy clambered atop one of the hatchlings, returning his eye contact to Sokka’s.

“Go away.”

And there it was.

He rode away, followed closely by the other dragon who was carrying a hippo-cow by the neck.

Sokka watched them leave, opening his mouth to call after them. His mind was full of thoughts now.

“HEEELP!”

The scream cut through them like a blade, attracting his attention back to the two bodies by Yakul. He rushed over, worried they were being attacked, or perhaps the dragons had found them, or –

There was a creature with enormous ears and wide green eyes staring at him from a mossy rock. It was peering close at the two men, of which one was desperately trying to squirm away despite his broken arm and leg.

“A winged lemur…!” Sokka said softly, “I never thought I’d see one of them here…”

He knelt down behind the panicking man, who must be slightly older than he.

“Easy there,” he instructed gently, “You don’t want to make your injuries worse, do you?”

The man jumped at the address, before they both looked back to the lemur as it nibbled on a berry.

“They’re nomadic creatures, they bring good luck – them roosting here is a sign this forest is healthy and safe.”

“B-but they’ll lead their lord and master right to us!” the man protested, looking around in fear.

“Who do you mean?” Sokka asked, confused, “You mean those dragons I just saw?”

“No! I mean a REAL monster, like a huge enormous panda! Except they say it’s not from this world at all, it’s like a ghost, sometimes, and at night they say it -!”

As he was speaking, the lemur seemed to lose interest, unfurling membranous wings from under its arms and lying off. The injured man yelped in fear, ducking.

“Agh! Where’d it go?!”

As they looked around to see where it would land, the man screamed again.

“Look! Reinforcements!” he said as more lemurs arrived, sitting on Yakul’s saddle, staring at them from the branches, and landing on nearby rocks, “We’re doomed! Oh no!”

Sokka smiled, looking to his calm fox-antelope.

“If Yakul’s not afraid, then we’ve got nothing to worry about here.”

One lemur approached the man, sniffing at him much to his vocal dismay, as Sokka stood up and neared the one on his saddle.

“Would you be kind enough to grant us passage through your forest, little one?” he asked, offering some seeds from his pouch. The lemur grabbed them shyly, stuffing its cheeks before flying to a roost in the trees.

“Oh no…” lamented the man behind him.

As they traipsed through the forest, a gorgeous place with tree trunks thick with moss, and vibrant flowers amongst the undergrowth, more lemurs could be seen staring down at them from the boughs above, along with glowflies and various other fauna. Sokka had chosen to seat the conscious man, whose name was Chan, atop Yakul, while he carried the unconscious Ruon-Jian on his back. Despite putting Chan’s injuries into slings and splints as much as possible, he was still vocal about his discomfort towards the animals trailing around Yakul’s ankles.

“Erghh…sir, I really think we should turn around now!”

Sokka ignored him, focusing on the heavy weight he was carrying up the grassy hill.

“I wonder, did I mention that no humans have ever made it through these woods alive? There’s a LOVELY trail back across the river.”

“The current’s too swift for us to get across,” Sokka said as sweat rolled down his forehead from the forest’s humid air, “And your friend’s injuries are very bad, if we don’t get him back soon, he doesn’t have a chance.”

One lemur was fluttering in front of Sokka, glancing back before continuing as if guiding him through the roots and undergrowth.

“Heh…hey, little fellow, are you showing us the way, or just getting us more lost?” Sokka chuckled.

The lemur paused at the top of the hill, glancing back at the little group before scampering through the clovers and mushrooms. Sokka had far less energy, panting when he reached the top.

“Please, sir!” Chan begged, “I’m really pretty sure they’re not trying to help us get home!”

He looked down at the train of dozens of lemurs following them, cringing.

“Oh my god, there’s thousands of them…”

Sokka looked up, still breathing hard, as the lemurs continued past them – quite a few had taken to carrying others on their backs, as if mimicking him. Sokka could not help but giggle to himself at the sight of a particularly fat lemur being hoisted along by a much smaller one. It gave him strength to continue along the parade of increasing numbers.

“Look at that,” Sokka said, jerking his head towards an enormous tree the lemurs were climbing up and flying to, “That must be their home. A fine old tree.”

Chan was less impressed, cowering as they passed under the lemurs’ home and entered into a clearing that was much different from the crowded trees they had just passed through.

Here, the ground was flooded with large patches of dark water alongside plush moss and thick trees. Tiny flowers and mushrooms were sprouting all around them.

“This place is magical…” Sokka murmured, looking around as they continued. His mouth hung limply open at the sight of towering trees four or five times as wide as he, at the streaming light of the sun dappling through the branches, of the sooty copper fritillaries, wings golden and insectoid bodies dark, flitting around them. But one thing was strange – there was no sounds. The animal chatter and birdsong of the forest they had just come through was gone. Only the quiet burble of the water was audible.

Sokka watched the fritillaries fly under his nose, and came to a stop. There were reptilian footprints here in the moss, as well as human ones. Smaller than his own.

“The tracks of those dragons and the boy with them,” he said softly, “This place must be where the four of them live.”

“Sir, I think maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere…?” Chan asked, ever whiny, “This is a place for gods and demons.”

“I think we’re safe,” Sokka insisted, setting Ruon-Jian down, “We’ll rest a bit.”

He pulled his helmet off, approaching the water and withdrawing his bowl. Unlike the raging rapids where he had found these two, the water here was crystal clear – he could see straight to the bottom as he knelt down to take a scoop.

The fritillaries were congregating on a small mossy boulder a few centimetres away. A dozen, perhaps more, were swarming onto some sort of indent on the green. Sokka stiffened – this was not a reptilian print like the others. It was a paw.

“More tracks…?”

There were additional ones, in the mud. With the water’s movement, they should have been washed away by now. Unless…

“Whatever made these…” Sokka breathed, “…made them recently…”

He scanned the faraway banks of the water, but there were no other creatures here. All was green and blue and quiet, sans a patch of bright yellow in the distance where sunlight was beaming in.

Sokka sucked in a breath, squinting. Something was moving there.

It looked to be a herd of cat-deer, making their way silently through the forest, silhouetted against the golden light.

Then, it appeared. Something not deer-like at all. Something enormous, with rounded ears and legs like trunks. It stopped, as if looking towards Sokka. As if looking through him, to his very soul.

His wound suddenly erupted with pain, muscle writhing and squirming under the skin in a visceral, disturbing way. Sokka cried out, grabbing it with his hand to try and quell it, but it only grew more agonizing, constantly jerking and yanking out of his grasp.

“Sir! What’s going on?! Are you alright?!”

Sokka shoved his arm into the water, clenching his teeth as mud puddled into his bowl at the bottom. His wound continued to pulse, rhythmically to his heartbeat, as the silhouette of the creature remained unmoving on the horizon. Then, it turned away, continuing its journey – barely had it exited view when the brilliant glow that Sokka had mistaken for sunlight faded into darkness.

His injury finally relaxed, allowing him to slump a bit, breathing hard. Sokka released his death-grip on the moss, taking a new bowlful of clean water to bring to the supine Ruon-Jian.

“Uh, sir…what just happened there?” Chan spoke up, “You went white as a sheet all of a sudden. I warned you about this place!”

Sokka gently helped Ruon-Jian to lift his head and drink.

“Here…did you see anything just then?”

“Like what?” Chan asked innocently.

“Forget it,” Sokka said, tucking his bowl away, “Hang on just a little longer, you’re almost home.”

“I failed her…” Ruon-Jian muttered, before his head lolled back again. Sokka turned his head back to where the beast had been.

“It’s gone…whatever it was.”

The two exited the glade and continued on their way, reentering the more normal part of the forest and hearing the sound of fauna start up again. But something was different now.

 _That’s strange…_ Sokka thought, as he moved up the next hill with no resistance, _Suddenly he doesn’t feel heavy at all…_

“My arm…it – it doesn’t hurt!” Chan piped up, wiggling his fingers, “It’s HEALED!”

He threw his hands up in victory, only to grunt in pain.

“No, it’s still broken.”

The trees began to thin before they reached what Sokka presumed was the edge of the forest. Climbing up a grassy knoll, Chan gave a cheer.

“Sir! You were right! We made it back home, just like you said!”

Sokka’s stomach dropped to his shoes as he looked at what this man called ‘home’.

It was situated in the middle of a lake, on a small mountain stripped of trees. The edges were adorned with enormous wooden spikes to keep anyone from climbing in, as well as a towering fence surrounding the entire village. Enormous plumes of smoke rose from various spots, billowing into the air around wooden buildings and one pyramid-like structure in the middle, seemingly made of metal. Watchtowers reminiscent of Bato’s lined the periphery, manned by masked guards peering out into the distance. The clink and clang of metalworkers had replaced the natural noise of the forest.

The primary entrance into the town was open, the tall gate raised as a procession of hippo-cows, guards, and workers returned inside. The miniscule bridge connecting the island to the mainland was the only thing between them and a drop into the moat. Sokka could also see men running water into irrigation channels, perhaps to cool or clean the metal-processing, as others chopped wood and tended to smokestacks.

It should have been an impressive display, yet Sokka’s gut clenched uncomfortably, and his arm throbbed.

“It’s a fortress…” he said emptily, pulling his mask up.

“It’s Lady Azula’s Iron Town!” Chan said pleasantly, “We make iron here from the ore in the sand!”

They approached the beach – three men were there, around a small campfire.

“Hey there! Hello! It’s me!” Chan called to them, “Hellooo!”

“Look, there…” one said, “Someone’s come out of the woods…”

“Is it the dragon boy…?” asked another, as the third grabbed a spear instinctively.

“Look! It’s me!” Chan said, waving, “Chan, the hippo-cow driver!”

Sokka rolled his eyes quietly.

* * *

The response from Iron Town was enormous, everyone passing word along frantically and bolting to the town pier where boats came in, amidst shouts of “Chan’s alive!”.

“It’s true! Chan’s still alive!” one of the guards said to the crowd at the rationing station, making them all gasp and rush to see if it was true.

“Quiet! Stop that noise!” barked the man who had accompanied Lady Azula during the drive, “I’m trying to tally these accounts here, so _shut up!_ ”

“Haven’t you heard?! Chan’s come back from the dead!” one worker said to him as he ran past.

“…what?!”

By now most of Iron Town had gathered at the shore, pointing to Sokka and the boat the two injured men had come in on. A group of workers scrambled to pick Ruon-Jian and Chan up, supporting them to dry land. A few watched Yakul shake his ginger fur dry from his swim across.

“This is unbelievable!” one man said, looking Chan over.

“Where are the others, Chan?”

“Yes, is my son with you?”

“Uh…” Chan said, smile slipping, “I’m afraid we’re the only ones who made it.”

Two masked men took Ruon-Jian, carrying him off, but not before shooting daggers at Chan.

“It’s never the guards that die,” muttered one woman with long black hair in bangs and buns.

“Stand aside,” Azula’s companion was saying, having finally arrived. He squinted down at Sokka, who was quietly disembarking the canoe and tending to Yakul.

“That man in the weird costume, sir…” one man whispered, “Who do you think he could be?”

“He’s obviously an outsider.”

“Listen to me, everyone!” Chan was saying, “This stranger saved our lives, he carried Ruon-Jian all the way back here! You should be grateful to him! AGH! Hey, watch the arm!”

The captain growled.

“Hold it right there!” he spat, puffing up his chest and heading down to Sokka with two guards in tow. The crowd shushed each other expectantly, listening.

“…I’m very grateful to you for bringing these men back to us,” he said finally, “But something doesn’t smell right. You got back here almost as fast as we did, and through the forbidden forest! On top of that, you did it with two badly injured men, and you want me to believe that -?!”

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by a shrill woman’s voice, as a girl in pink darted down.

“Chan! CHAN! You’re alive!” she was screaming.

“Ty Lee! My love!” he crooned, reaching his good arm out to her. Instead of embracing him, however, she gasped as she looked him over, before adopting a stern pout.

“That’s just great!” she snapped, “How are you ever gonna drive the hippo-cows now all banged up and mangled?!”

“B-but my little flower -!”

“You scared me half to death!” she bellowed, as the other men began to giggle to themselves, “Don’t you little flower me! I wish the dragons HAD eaten you! Then maybe I could have found a _real_ boyfriend.”

The chuckles were spreading as Chan winced.

“Sweetness, could we discuss this later…?”

“Ty Lee, save your sweet nothings for some other time,” the man who had been grilling Sokka said annoyedly, as the raucous laughter continued. But the woman named Ty Lee was already turning her attention to him, equally mad.

“And as for _you_ , Zhao!” she said, marching over, “A fine captain of the guard YOU are, always strutting and throwing your weight around AFTER once the danger’s _over!_ You never do a lick of work around here!”

“That’s unfair and untrue!” he protested weakly, but Ty Lee was not listening, looking to Sokka.

“Thanks, stranger,” she said in far softer tones, “My boyfriend’s an idiot, but I’m glad he’s safe and sound.”

“That’s a relief,” Sokka said politely, “I was starting to think I’d done something wrong by bringing him back home.”

Ty Lee paused, surprised, then burst into laughter.

“Say,” she tittered, “Why don’t you take the mask off, I bet you’re really handsome.”

“Zhao.”

A different voice had sounded over the rest. A woman’s voice, but one with authority. Everyone turned to look, including Sokka.

Standing at the top of the path to the entrance was a woman dressed in all blacks and reds, far more elegant attire than those around her. Her luxuriant black hair was done up in a bun, held in place by an ornamental golden comb in the shape of a crown. For a split second, Sokka thought he was looking at the boy from the forest again.

“Bring the stranger to me later,” she said, deep red lips contrasted against pale skin, “I would like to thank him personally. And Chan?”

“Ah, uh…yes…?” he asked awkwardly.

“I’m happy you’re back. And I apologize.”

“Uh…okay…”

“Uh oh, my lady, you really shouldn’t tell him things like that,” Ty Lee said good-naturedly, “If you’re too nice to him, he’ll walk all over you!”

“I hope you’ll forgive me too, Ty Lee,” Azula continued, “I was responsible, I should never have let it happen.”

“Oh, that’s alright!” Ty Lee giggled, “My lady, if you hadn’t been there, the dragons would have eaten everyone, and then we’d _all_ have to find ourselves new husbands.”

The women burst into laughter around them, though Azula was silent aside from her polite smile.

“Get some rest, traveler. I will see you this evening.”

Sokka pulled his mask down as a bit as she walked away, feeling an uncomfortable anxiety swelling inside him. Ty Lee glanced behind herself and gasped loudly.

“Wowww, hey! You’re not handsome, you’re _gorgeous!_ ”

* * *

The watchmen were ringing the closing bell, banging a mallet against a suspended piece of iron. It was time to return within the walls. Workers in the monochrome brown hills around Iron Town’s lake returned from their jobs of cutting trees and smoking product, walking across the bridges leading into town. A team of six men moved the pulley and crank, closing the enormous, heavy gate behind the stragglers. The interior was bustling, with various merchants and salesmen offering food and drink and other rations in the marketplace.

“There! You know they had to fight off dragons to get this rice through!”

“Just dish it out!”

Yakul had been hitched up in a stable with some hippo-cows, quietly enjoying his own feast of hay as some of the town women huddled at the entrance to one of the lounges. They were looking for Sokka, asking each other where he was, pointing to his seat in the corner, and clambering over each other for a look.

“Ty Lee was right!” one named Suki said, “He is handsome!”

“Yeah, not bad,” giggled one named Song.

“But he’s so young!”

“That never stopped _you_ before!”

Though some of the men inside joined in the laughter, one was less than amused.

“Quiet out there! We lost some good men today!” a man named Qin Lee snapped.

“Yeah, there’s lots of gorgeous men in here, honey!” another one chuckled.

“I’ve seen rabaroos that looked better!” snorted Suki.

“Listen, stranger,” said one named June, “Why don’t you come over to our place? You don’t wanna stay in this stinking old barn.”

The other girls cackled in assent.

“Look, woman!” snapped a man named Jee, “We risked our lives to bring you the rice you’re all eating tonight! So watch your mouth!”

“And who MADE the iron that paid for that rice, huh?” shot back Song, “Tell me that!”

“Yeah, we’re pumping those bellows while you pigs are in bed!” June added.

Sokka turned his head to them.

“Actually, if it’s not too much trouble, ladies, I would like to see where you work.”

“You would?!” the girls gasped and tittered, blushing.

“We’ll have to work in makeup!” June said as the girls’ laughter continued, infectious.

“Don’t be a stranger!” Song added.

“Don’t forget now! We’ll be waiting for you!” Suki squealed as the girls peeled away to return to their work.

Sokka watched them go with a smile.

“It’s best not to pay them any mind, you know,” Jee said, sipping from his soup, “Lady Azula spoils them rotten, that’s why they’re like that.”

“Well, they say that happy women make a happy village,” Sokka said politely.

“Happy? Puh!” jeered another man, “Those kinda women, working in here?”

“Women like that, it’s a disgrace! They defile the iron!” sneered Qin Lee. Sokka raised an eyebrow.

“The Lady Azula goes around buying the contract of every brothel girl and washed-up peasant she can find!”

“The Lady has a kind heart,” said yet another, an elderly gentleman, “That’s all.”

“You’ve got rice on your chin, old man,” Jee admonished.

“Well it’s true! Everything here HAS turned upside down since she showed up!” said one of the younger ones.

“That’s right, she’s not even afraid of the gods, that woman!” said one called Hide as he moved to sit closer to Sokka, “Why, you shoulda SEEN the way she dealt with Nago!”

Sokka pricked his ears.

“Who is Nago?”

“Who’s Nago? The gigantic wooly-pig god! He used to rule this whole forest!”

Sokka’s chest tightened.

“We couldn’t even get near the mountains with him around,” Hide continued, “Nothing to do but sit around on our backsides for months staring at a bunch of angry pigs.”

“See, the iron in the sand under this town had all been dug out,” Qin Lee added.

“So then we tried to dig at the iron under the mountain, but Nago wasn’t gonna stand for that,” Hide snickered.

“The problem was before we could dig for the iron, we had to clear away the forest,” Jee explained, “And that’s what made the pig angry…”

He looked away, as if gazing at a memory. Sokka needed no details, he could picture it clearly in his mind’s eye. Men chopping away and piling trees, only for the enormous wooly-pig he had seen before to stampede through it, throwing men into the air as his smaller piglets tore through supplies and camps. Arrows lit with fire, or earth-bended rock, bounced off the god’s hide as if they were flies, a mere nuisance.

His thoughts were interrupted by loud laughter – one of the men was particularly drunk and dancing foolishly.

“He’s feeling no pain!” cackled Qin Lee.

“Then one day, Lady Azula came along with her firebenders and her rifles!” Hide said.

Sokka could see it – Azula, Zhao, and her masked men, unleashing hellfire upon the forest, and sending Nago helplessly retreating, likely after losing his piglets to the blaze. The hulking wooly-pig, illuminated only by the vile glow of red and orange, as Lady Azula looked over the burning forest.

Sokka could feel his wound aching, feel it throbbing under his left hand that tried in vain to clench it into submission.

“Young man? What’s wrong?” asked Jee, before noticing Sokka throttling his own limb, “Is something hurting your arm?”

“No,” Sokka said stiffly, “I was just thinking about the pig god. I was thinking how he must have died filled with hate.”

Jee sat back a bit, studying him, but said nothing more.

* * *

Azula was gently tapping a hunk of iron with a hammer, assessing its quality.

“Forgive me for keeping you waiting, stranger,” she said to Sokka, who was standing by, before handing the piece to Zhao, “That’s good iron. We were running behind with tomorrow’s shipment.”

She took a brush from a nearby stand and wrote some notes on parchment.

“Let’s have a rest,” she instructed the girl with the black buns, who Sokka had learned was named Mai, “You may tell the others.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, carrying a bundle of iron away.

“Some think you’re either a spy for the dragon boy, or for Governor Ukano and his agents. There are a lot of people out there with their eyes on this iron. Why _are_ you here, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Sokka mutely reached into his sleeve, undoing the strap and pulling it down to his wrist, exposing his purplish-black wound for her to see. It had grown larger still since he had last seen it, spreading past his elbow. Zhao stared, aghast, as Azula narrowed her eyes at it.

“I believe you’ll recognize this,” Sokka said, opening his palm to reveal the iron ball. He had been holding it while waiting for her, letting its ridges dig into his flesh.

“It shattered the bones of a giant pig, rotted his flesh, and turned him into a monster.”

Zhao stepped between Sokka and Azula, holding his sword defensively.

“I fought with him, and for that I was cursed with this mark on my arm, and soon it will kill me.”

He pulled his sleeve up, covering it.

“Where is you come from?” Azula asked, “I’ve never seen a fox-antelope like that before.”

“I have come a very long way,” Sokka said, trusting his instinct to not share the hideaway of the remnants of the Southern Water Tribe with this woman, “I can’t tell you more than that.”

“Answer my lady’s question or I’ll cut you in half!” thundered Zhao, hand twitching on his blade as if itching to do just that.

“What do you plan to do? What exactly are you here for?” Azula pressed.

“To see with eyes unclouded by hate.”

“Eyes unclouded?!” she said, before throwing her head back and laughing cruelly, “That explains it. Come, I’ll show you all my secrets.”

She stood up, leading the way out of the warehouse.

“Is that wise, my lady…?” Zhao asked, watching them go.

“Zhao, take over for me.”

“Uh…grr…”

Sokka obliged, following Azula closely through the market stalls. Even at this hour, most of the working stalls were filled with men and women alike, pounding iron – though some still took a moment to peek out and ogle at Sokka as he passed.

They were passing the enormous metal pyramid that Sokka had seen when he had arrived with the two injured men. Inside the enormous wooden doors, it was ablaze with light and Sokka slowed to look. There was some sort of massive contraption nestled in the center, with an ever-burning chimney at the top where men were constantly walking up to, dumping in more coal or bending the fire to be stronger. Others were adding the iron ore to smelt. Liquid metal was oozing out of the side into a mould, a searing white color, and to the left were the very women he had seen earlier. They were standing sideways, gripping onto ropes for support, moving back and forth in a rhythmic motion as they worked one foot at a time on the bellows. One side went up as the other went down, repeating endlessly. The shorter women stood on their tiptoes to reach when their side rose up. Nearby, the women on break were sitting on mats to drink water and eat meager snacks. Even out here, the heat emanating from the furnace was overpowering – Sokka could only imagine how the girls were handling it, sweaty and breathing in steady unison. He was awed by their strength and perseverance.

For now, though, he had to continue after Azula.

She led him through a fenced wall, into the only lush place in the entire brown and gray world of Iron Town.

“This is my garden,” she said, looking to him, “None of the townspeople dare to come here. Follow me if you wish to learn my secret.”

Sokka glanced at a guard sitting by the entrance under an umbrella. He was bandaged, from head to toe, with a mask over his face. After a pause, Sokka followed Azula further into the greenery, to a large shack at the back.

“Good evening,” she greeted yet another two mummified men. Sokka blinked, concerned, before joining her inside. As he pulled the woven curtain up, looking inside, he furrowed his brow in confusion.

Everyone inside was wrapped in bandages, almost all fully. Some were making supper, others were working on wood and metal, creating something.

“We’ve only just finished it, my lady,” one woman was saying.

“Hmm…it’s still too heavy,” Azula said, weighing something with her hands. Sokka’s stomach did a somersault when he realized it was a gun.

“Perhaps if you didn’t hold it so delicately?” asked the girl.

“Milday, if we make them any lighter, they’ll fall apart!” said a boy jovially.

“I trust you to figure it out,” Azula said pleasantly as she pulled the trigger experimentally, watching the hammer snap into place, “They’re not for me. They’re for the other women here. The non-benders.”

“That’ll be something to see,” chuckled the girl.

“This is the latest rifle I’ve asked these people to design,” Azula explained, turning to Sokka as she rested the stock of the gun on her shoulder, “The ones we’ve brought here have turned out to be too heavy. These will kill forest monsters and pierce the thickest armor.”

“You’d better watch out there, young man, the Lady Azula wants to rule the world!”

“I’m sorry to have to push you all so hard,” Azula said to the workers gently, “I’ll have wine sent down later.”

“Ooo, that’ll be nice!”

Sokka was quietly seething.

“First you steal the pig’s forest from him, then transform him into a demon. Now you’re making even deadlier weapons. How much more hatred and pain do you think we need?!”

“Yes, I’m the one who shot the pig. And I’m sorry that you suffer, I truly am. That brainless thing…I’m the one he should have put a curse on, not you.”

If she was being genuine, it was little consolation to Sokka, whose shaggy hair was rising on end and hands were clenching. Suddenly, he felt his right arm shoot out, out of control. He flew to his hip, grabbing his sword, and it took every ounce of effort for him to catch himself by the wrist with his other hand and try to shove the weapon back into its scabbard. The bandaged men and women yelped in fear, wriggling away from him, as Sokka found some strength to pull his hand off the handle.

“Does that right hand of yours wish to kill me now, Sokka?” she asked, eyes narrow and voice low.

“If it would lift the curse, I’d let it tear you apart,” Sokka said darkly, “But even that wouldn’t end the killing, now would it.”

“No, it wouldn’t. It would have to kill all of us to be at peace,” was her smug response.

“…my lady…” spoke a quiet voice from the back, “Kuzon has something to say…”

There was one who was not sitting up and working, draped in bandages – instead, he was lying under a blanket, and was fully mummified, not a sliver of skin visible when all the others at least had their eyes exposed. He spoke in raspy tones, barely audible.

“Forgive me, milady…you must not make light of the boy's strength. Young man, like you, I know what rage feels like...and grief and helplessness. But you must not take your revenge on Lady Azula. She is the only one who saw us as human beings.”

Though Sokka was listening, he did not tear his eyes away from Azula, and neither she from his.

“We are the worst victims of the Fire Nation’s war, the sick and disfigured. The world hates and fears us, but she, she took us in and bandaged us and gave us work.”

He broke down into coughs briefly, ignoring the urges of the man next to him to quiet.

“Life is suffering. It is hard. The world is cursed, but still, you find reasons to keep living. I'm sorry. I'm making no sense…”

There were many things Sokka could say, or do, there. Most unsavory. But he chose the strongest option, and held his tongue. Now was not the time. Nothing would be solved.

The moon was high in the sky now, and the distant howl of wolves resonated over the barren hills as the two climbed to the roof and looked out into the hills. Azula added a slim bullet to the new rifle, firing it towards seemingly nothing, but upon it landing in a blaze of light amidst the dead tree stumps, a group of hog-monkeys could be seen retreating, though they were little but shadowy figures with beady red eyes in the dark of the night.

“Ugh, they just keep coming back,” Azula muttered, “Every night they’re out there planting trees, trying to turn the mountain into a forest again.”

Sokka said nothing, staring out over the pointed fence.

“…stay here. Help me kill the forest spirit Hei-Bai, Sokka.”

His eyes widened, stunned.

“…you would do that? Kill the very heart of the forest?”

“Without that ancient god, the animals here would be nothing but dumb beasts once more. When the forest has been cleared and the dragons wiped out, this desolate place will be the richest land in the world…”

Her ambition melted into somberness for the briefest instance.

“…and Prince Mononoke will become human.”

Sokka turned himself fully to look at her, eyes wide.

“Prince Mononoke?”

“Prince of the spirits, of ghouls, beasts, and ancient gods. The dragons stole his soul, and now he lives to kill me.”

Sokka thought back to the boy in the forest he had seem with luxuriant black locks and blazing golden eyes, and that dark scar across his face. He swallowed hard, and looked away.

“The legends say the blood of Hei-Bai can heal anything. Perhaps it could cure my workers downstairs…might even be able to lift your curse, Sokka.”

Sokka said nothing.

“Milady?”

She looked down into the hatch of the roof.

“How does the action feel to you? Better?”

“Smooth as silk, the perfect thing for ruling the world…but still too heavy for the girls.”

The bandaged man chuckled.

“Alright, alright…”

Sokka turned from the fence, making his way out of the private garden and back into the main part of Iron Town. He knew the longer he stayed in Azula’s presence, the more his wound would grow in pain, until the crescendo was too much for him to bite back.

As he returned, he passed the forge again, and could hear the women singing a working song. He decided to enter, throwing his cloak and helmet to the floor as he approached.

The girls taking their rests looked up, gasping in surprise. Ty Lee was there, fanning herself.

“Well, look who’s here,” she purred, as the others hurried to fix their hair and adjust their clothes.

“Evening,” Sokka said, “Alright if I work the bellows for a while?”

He pulled off his tunic, throwing it to the floor with his cloak. Ty Lee was taken aback.

“Wh – ah – I guess so?”

Suki was there on the end, with June at her side.

“Excuse me, mind if I try for a bit?”

Suki blushed deeply, unsure.

“But –”

“It’s okay, might as well let him _try_ ,” Ty Lee teased.

Suki relinquished the hold, allowing him to take her place. Sokka took the rope, and pressed down with all his might. The girls on the other side whooped and giggled joyously as their side went up and down much further than normal, allowing them to ride it like a jostling horse.

“When you get tired, I’ll take over for you!” a girl named Jin said, as she and other women gathered around to watch.

“Well, that won’t be long!” Ty Lee said knowingly, “I’m impressed, but you’ll _never_ keep that pace up.”

“It’s hard work, isn’t it…” Sokka said, already getting tired.

“Mhm! You bet! And our shifts are four days long.”

“You must lead hard lives here,” Sokka strained.

“I suppose, yeah, but it sure beats working a circus in the hills, huh?”

The other girls cheered in agreement.

“Yeah! Here we get to each as much as we want, and the men don’t bother us!” Jin said.

“Unless we want them to!” another added, as the group laughed.

* * *

The hog-monkeys may have given up their mission of replanting trees for the night, roosting high up in leafless trees, but two dragons, and their black-clad rider, were only getting started. Making their way through rock tunnels and stepping past elephant-rats and gilacorns.

The dragon boy was seated on the back of the red one, as the blue one shoved its muzzle onto his lap for reassurance. He ran his fingers gently over its snout, cooing calmly before pulling his blue oni mask over his face. He had a mission.

* * *

The women groaned in dismay upon hearing Sokka’s announcement at the entrance to the forge.

“Aww, no! But you can’t leave tomorrow!” Suki protested.

“Couldn’t you stay a little longer?”

“You can stay and work here!” Jin added.

“Thank you all, but…there’s someone I have to find out there in the forest,” Sokka said honestly.

He heard it then. The thud of scaled feet on the ground. A vision of a boy riding a dragon. He drew in a breath, turning his head back, as the girls looked at him inquisitively.

“…he’s here,” Sokka said softly, before running towards the sound.

The dragons were running to the wall, feet thudding hard as they flapped underdeveloped wings and caught minor updrafts to fly off the ground a little. One of the guards had seen them, banging an alarm.

“The dragons are coming! It’s the dragon prince!”

One rushed to the fence, firing shots at the two serpentine bodies. The boy pointed a stolen spear forward, urging his ride towards the part of the moat where the water was low enough to run across. The dragon obliged, running quickly to the spiked protrusions before turning his body, slamming into them lengthwise and launching his charge into the air. The prince slammed the spear into the wood, using it as a foothold to clamber over, drawing two swords as he breached the wall.

The guard leapt back in surprise, wielding his own spear and trying to smash the boy off, though he could not react quickly enough to the nimble jumps and dodges, and was knocked neatly off by one single strike. The boy dodged fire from the watchtower and scampered over rooftops swiftly, sprinting away.

Sokka was running through the town, trying to find the dragon prince before the roaring crowd of angry men behind him could, and slid to a stop when he saw him atop a nearby rooftop. One shot hit the edge before he could jump, knocking him down right in front of Sokka – and leaving Sokka completely exposed to two swiping blades. He dodged backwards as fast he could, before pulling his own sword out and parrying incoming stabs as best he could.

“Stop! Wait!” he yelled, “I don’t wanna fight you! I’m a friend!”

The prince silently jumped back, as the other men fell upon him, but he leapt into the air and was running away across the rooftops before anyone could stop him.

“Hurry! He’s after Lady Azula!” one barked, as the crowd ran after him. Sokka instead used some loose logs as a support to climb up onto the roof after him, watching the prince bolt over the forge roof. He followed at a safe distance, breathing hard.

“Keep stoking those fires!” Zhao was ordering below, as the girls ran out with scythes and glaives, “Riflemen and benders to the stockade. We've got him right where we want him.”

“A weapon for every man!” Jee was adding, handing out more, “Everyone defends Iron Town!”

“Ty Lee! He’s on the roof!” Suki reported.

“Now don’t get excited,” she said, quelling the frightened gasps, “Keep those bellows working. Whatever happens, we can’t let those fires go out.”

Azula had joined Zhao by now.

“Is he alone?” she asked.

“Yes. He can’t escape, we have him cornered,” he said softly, “You know he means to kill you this time.”

“We’ll see about that,” she said smarmily, turning behind herself, “C’mon.”

Two girls were following her, wielding the new rifles. The three of them and Zhao stepped in a clearing lit by torches, surrounded by chattering townspeople.

“Can you hear me, Prince of Beasts?” Azula said loudly, “If it’s me you want, here I am. If you seek revenge for all the animals we’ve killed, well, there are two women down here whom I’d like you to meet.”

Sokka was still scarpering over the roof, looking out over dormers for the boy.

“They want revenge as well, for husbands killed by your dragons!”

“Come on out, you little demon, my husband’s dead because of you!” one snarled.

Sokka stayed in his hidden spot, looking out as additional Iron Town residents poured into the square. At the top of the furnace roof, there he was, standing up with that glittering blue mask and dark bodysuit, a stark silhouette against the burning smoke and fire. Sokka sucked in a breath.

“There he is!”

“Everybody, out of the way!” Zhao demanded, “Quickly! Get ready to fire!”

Sokka could see some guards huddling by a watchtower. He stiffened in realization.

“It’s a trap!”

He turned back to the boy.

“No! Wait!”

He clambered up to the joint between the main roof and the entrance arch.

“Prince of the Dragon Gods! Don’t go down there! Go back to the forest!”

The boy did not answer or move, standing like a ghost as the wind ruffled his hair.

“Listen to me! Please! Don’t throw your life away!” Sokka begged.

“Shall I stop him?” Zhao asked, as if relishing the idea.

“Leave him be, let him do what he likes,” Azula said dismissively.

There was a distance sound – the roar of a dragon.

The boy raised his swords slowly, then rushed down the roof, charging for the Lady.

Sokka gasped, rushing to intercept him, but the gunfire reached the prince first, blowing a hole in the roof and knocking him off as Sokka threw his hands up over his face. One shard of wood buried itself in his wounded arm, yet he barely felt it as he wrenched it out and blood splattered about.

The boy was rolling down the roof, clearly stunned. Zhao let loose a cheer.

“He’s down! We got him!” he yelled, as the crowd celebrated, ready to run in.

“Stay back,” Azula said coolly, “Cut off a wolf’s head and it still has the power to bite.”

“What -?”

“Take aim where he falls.”

The boy had nearly reached the edge of the roof. Once he fell, the townsfolk would fall upon him, and rip him to pieces. Sokka moved instinctively to chase, but stopped himself, turning around and grabbing a horizontal support beam in the roof. He began to pull, groaning softly as his muscles protested, yet with strength he did not know he had, he felt a portion pull free right as the boy fell over the edge, landing awkwardly on his hands and knees like a cat. He lifted himself up slowly.

“Open fire,” Azula said, and her two girls shot. One missed, but the other hit the boy right in the mask, shattering it and knocking him down.

Zhao cackled, rushing forward with the others to kill him.

“No!” Sokka bellowed, “Stay! Back!”

He threw the beam, smashing it directly into a torch in the path to the boy and sending the men flying back or scattering in surprise.

“What the devil was that?!” Zhao thundered, flapping his arms.

Sokka jumped off the roof edge, landing neatly beside the boy and shaking him by the shoulders. His face was exposed now, pale in the moonlight.

“Wake up!”

And so he did, with golden eyes ablaze in fury. Having dropped his blades out of reach, he swung a flaming fist in Sokka’s face, burning under his eye and forcing him to jump back to avoid additional swipes, before tearing past him.

“No -!”

Zhao was ready, swinging his sword neatly to catch him, but the boy jumped directly up, smashing his feet into Zhao’s face and using it as a launch pad to leap over the crowd of men behind him. Now with a straight line to Azula, he ran with a war-cry as the two girls bolted to safety. But Azula stood unwavering, merely throwing her cloak aside before billowing a plume of fire directly at the boy.

The dragon prince was no fool, dodging it neatly. He too, now wielded fire, a violent red to contrast against Azula’s icy blue. Sokka stiffened in realization – he had not expected the boy to be a firebender.

The two battled, swipes and plumes of fires shooting into the air, as the townspeople who dared to come close to the blaze used their glaives to poke the boy closer to Azula, tightening the arena and screaming insults.

Sokka slowly stood up, looking towards the cacophony of sounds.

“Are you alright, sir?” one man was asking Zhao, who was rubbing his head, “Can I help you?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine!”

Sokka could feel it happening again. The dull throb in his right arm had become fiery, pins and needles on his clenched fingers. His cloak flapped around him though there was no breeze as he strode forward.

“Get away from me! Begone!” Zhao snapped, sending the two boys near him away, before turning his attention to Sokka. He paled at the sight, for Sokka’s right arm was now encircled by an apparition of serpents of black, wiggling wildly amidst a purple glow. A manifestation of hate so strong it could be seen by the eye.

“…traitor…” he said, “You’re a spy for the dragons, aren’t you?!”

Sokka said nothing, continuing his march.

“Stay back!” Zhao said, baring his sword, “Halt!”

But Sokka merely twisted it into a pathetic curl as he walked by, his right arm imbued with unholy strength.

“Step aside.”

One of the tendrils had gotten stuck on the edge, leaving Zhao to drop his sword in terror at the sight.

Townsfolk who stood in his way were thrown or pushed aside as Sokka marched to the clearing where the two firebenders were fighting. Azula was almost swayed by his presence, but caught herself and avoided a shot of fire. Sokka could smell singed hair as he reached forward, grabbing the prince’s wrist hard with one hand, and Azula’s arm with the other. The boy spat and snarled, trying to pull his hand free.

“What do you think you’re doing, boy?!” Azula hissed. Though both he and she could easily wish their fire upon Sokka if they wished, even with one hand restrained, they refrained – perhaps out of honor, as their battle involved each other only.

“Stay your hand, the boy’s life is now mine.”

Said boy was now digging his teeth into Sokka’s arm to try and pull himself free.

“I’m sure he’ll make a lovely pet for you.”

“There’s a demon inside you. It’s inside both of you.”

As he spoke, the black and purple tentacles erupted from his right arm again. The boy gasped in horror at the sight, pulling away, as the Iron Town residents murmured and stared.

“Look, everyone!” Sokka said loudly, addressing the people, “This is what hatred looks like. This is what it does when it catches hold of you. It's eating me alive, and very soon now it will kill me! Fear and anger only make it grow faster!”

The boy was terrified, trying desperately to rip free from Sokka’s grasp, trying to swat the coils away.

“I’m getting a little bored of this curse of yours, Sokka, let me just burn the damn thing off!”

Sokka ducked as Azula sent a burst of fire overhead, before slamming his head right into her solar plexus. She made a weird grunt before slumping over, onto his shoulder. He did the same with his knee into the boy’s sternum, knocking him unconscious.

“My lady!”

“Lady Azula!”

Sokka stood up, holding the two firebenders on his shoulders, the black curls swirling around all three of them before fading.

“Someone come here and take her from me.”

There was hesitation, then Suki, June, and Jin rushed forward, taking Azula.

“My lady…!”

“Don’t worry. She’s just stunned, she’ll be alright,” he said, gently handing her over before pulling the prince fully onto his back as other girls rushed over to check on their lady.

“As for me, I’m leaving, and I’m taking the dragon boy.”

“Oh, no you’re not!” spat Mai, taking a rifle from one of the women, “Nobody treats my Lady Azula like that!”

Sokka looked at her quietly.

“…move, and I fire!”

He made a soft sigh, then began walking out much to the silent shock of the townsfolk. They cleared to allow him passage, watching him go.

Mai had not yet fired, quivering a little with the rifle in her hand.

“…Mai! What are you doing?!” burst out a girl behind her. The panic made her trigger finger twitch, lighting the gun and firing it with a blast, sending a bullet right through Sokka’s midsection, below his heart. He staggered for a moment, then righted himself and continued.

The girls stared, shocked and horrified.

“…how can he still be walking…?”

Zhao watched the two go, shivering, before bolting to his men.

“Is she alright?!”

“Yes, milady’s safe, sir!”

“Someone bring me my gun! Riflemen and benders to the square, now! On the double! They’re not getting out of here alive!”

Some of the girls were by the forge’s back entrance.

“Ty Lee! Come here!” one called, as Sokka approached. She hurried over, gasping in sight at the blood running in thick sheens over his blue tunic, front and back.

“Wh – what’s happened?!” she asked him, but he did not speak. She looked at the dirt, where thick gobs of blood were puddling after each step Sokka had taken.

Everyone had gathered at the gate, staring as Sokka approached with Yakul at his tail.

“Sir! I can’t let you pass!” Jee said, stepping in front of him, “The gate’s been ordered shut! It can’t be opened!”

Sokka stepped past him, to the wood of the giant gate. The two guards crossed their rifles in front of him.

“Turn back, please,” one whispered.

“We’re grateful to you for bringing those men back to us. We don’t wanna hurt you.”

“Please!”

“I walked in through this gate this morning…now I’m going to leave the same way.”

Sokka reached out, placing his right hand against the wood.

“Don’t be a fool! It takes ten men to open this gate!”

Sokka was not listening, pressing against it with all his might. More and more blood dripped below, forming a puddle of red under him as his foot slipped a little on it.

“Stop it! You’ll kill yourself!” Jee pleaded.

The gate creaked quietly, and began to give way. The guard gasped, stepping back a bit, as the townspeople stared in shock, murmuring to themselves.

Slowly but surely, Sokka lifted the gate overhead as he stepped forward. Behind him, he could hear the sounds of Zhao and the guards approaching.

“Out of the way!”

Ahead, Sokka could see the blue and red dragons galloping forward to reclaim their brother.

“He’s alright! Your prince is safe with me!” Sokka said to them, as they slid to a stop and snarled, “Stay, and I will bring him! Come on, Yakul…”

The fox-antelope exited the shadow of the gate, ducking his head. Sokka turned behind him to the men, dipping his head.

“You have my thanks,” he said in a strained tone, before stepping out and releasing the gate behind him, letting it slam into place. The town was silent now.

“…good luck, stranger,” Jee said softly.

Somehow, Sokka managed to board Yakul, holding the dragon boy on his lap as they rode away, the dragons close behind. He could feel his blood continuing to gush out, all over the fox-antelope’s fur. His head was light by this point, delirious and exhausted. His grip on the boy was beginning to slacken when he distantly felt him raise his head, looking around in confusion.

Then Sokka fell off, backwards, crashing into the rocks and dirt and rolling to a stop. The boy gasped, watching him.

The dragons immediately turned, one grabbing Sokka’s head in its jaws and readying to tear it apart.

“STOP IT!”

They paused, looking up at their brother as he struggled to get off the frantically bucking fox-antelope, who wanted this creature off him as fast as possible.

“Leave him! He’s mine!” he barked, before managing to jump down. Yakul scampered away, lowering his horns defensively as the prince massaged his belly where the human had struck him.

He approached the limpid boy, glaring at the blood.

“His own people shot him,” he said aloud, as the blue dragon, named Ran, wiggled his muzzle under the boy’s arm, “He’s dying.”

Sokka made a tiny moan.

“Why did you stop me from killing her?!” the boy spat, kneeling down beside him, “Tell me while you’re still alive!”

“I…didn’t want them…to kill you…” Sokka mumbled, “That’s why…”

“I’m not afraid to die!” the prince protested, “I’d do anything to get you humans out of my forest!”

“I knew that…from the first moment…I saw you…”

“And I’m not afraid of _you!_ I should kill you for saving her!”

The boy yanked the body over onto its back, pulling the sword free from its scabbard and hovering it millimetres above Sokka’s throat.

“That woman is evil! And there’s no one that can stop me from killing her!”

“No…” Sokka murmured, breathing hard, “Live…”

“THAT’S ENOUGH! I’m not listening to you anymore!”

Sokka opened his eyes a little bit, smiling weakly.

“You’re beautiful…”

The prince gasped, staggering away in shock. Of all the things he had expected to hear…that was not one.

 _What is it, Zuko? Want me to crunch his face off?_ Ran purred.

They stared at the body before them, so pathetic and near death. Yet the dragon prince Zuko could not move.

A pebble flew through the air, clattering to the stone and dirt near the dragons and Zuko. He gasped, looking to the source as Ran growled behind him. It was a pack of hog-monkeys, throwing yet more rocks and twigs at them, mere shadows in the night with glaring red eyes.

"The hog-monkey tribe?" Zuko asked curtly, "Alright! What do you want here?!"

 _Monkeys! How dare you show such disrespect to the dragon clan?!_ Ran growled.

One of the hog-monkeys stepped a little closer on the boulder they were all gathered atop.

_This is our forest._

_The human, give him to us,_ another said.

_Give us the human, and go._

_You go! Before my fangs find you!_ hissed Shaw, the red dragon.

 _We will not go,_ the hog-monkeys continued, still throwing debris.

_We will eat the human!_

Zuko shivered in revulsion.

_Yes, let us eat the man-creature._

"Are you crazy?!" Zuko sputtered, "Just what happened to make the hog-monkey tribe change this way?! Since when do apes eat the flesh of a man?!"

 _If we eat the human, we will steal his strength, and we will drive the other humans away,_ the lead hog-monkey said, voice low and dark.

_Give us the man-creature!_

"Stop this!" Zuko retorted, "You know you can't possess the humans' strength by eating them! All that will do is make you into something else! Something even _worse_ than human!"

_We plant trees. Humans tear them up. The forest does not come back. If we kill the humans, we will save the forest._

"You mustn't give up! We'll find a way! Hei-Bai is with us! Go on planting your trees, and someday we'll beat them!"

_The forest spirit will not fight. We will all die. Dragon boy does not care - he is human._

Zuko flinched as if struck, livid.

 _ENOUGH!_ Shaw snarled, _I'll bite your head off, you chattering ape!_

The two dragons rushed after the hog-monkeys as they scattered, despite Zuko's protests.

"Stop! Wait! Come back! Leave them alone!" Zuko called after them. The dragon brothers begrudgingly withdrew, returning to his side.

"Don't worry about them, it's alright," Zuko murmured, "You two go on ahead now. I'll stay here and deal with the human."

 _What about the fox?_ Ran pressed.

 _Yesss..._ Shaw said, as the two reptiles looked over to the ginger-furred steed, _Can we eat him?_

The two licked their lips as Zuko sighed exasperatedly.

"No, you may not. Go home."

The dragons made rumbles of discontent but obliged, heading in the direction of their nest. Zuko held Yakul's gaze, watching him snort.

"Come over here," he said, "Don't worry, I'm a friend. Don't be shy now, I won't hurt you - I need you to help me carry him."

Yakul pawed at the ground, uncertain.

"Please?"

The fox-antelope acquiesced, coming closer as Zuko returned Sokka's sword and lifted him up.

* * *

The fritillaries flew overhead as winged lemurs peered down, at this strange sight. More gathered to stare as Zuko led Yakul, who was carrying Sokka on his back, through the forest. It was quiet except for the indistinct hum of crickets, and the soft crunch of grass underfoot.

More and more lemurs appeared, numbering in the hundreds, as Zuko led Yakul to the edge of the water, in the glade where earlier Sokka had escorted two injured men through. Sensing Yakul's apprehension at the water, Zuko cut a small sapling from the ground to use as bait to lure him across. Several lemurs gathered at the beheaded plant, looking at it sadly.

The water was deceptively deep, coming up to Zuko's neck almost instantly as Yakul followed him in. He pulled the unconscious Sokka into the cool pond, wading through squishy mud and bones littering the bottom to bring the human to the centermost island. Yakul followed hesitantly, making anxious noises.

Zuko laid Sokka along the edge of the island, replanting the sapling above his head by shoving it into the dirt. He adjusted Sokka to allow his lower half to be submerged and pressed his head to that barely-rising chest to check for a pulse. It was there, hardly though. Zuko looked to Yakul, who refused to come closer.

"You are very wise..." he said softly, "You know better than to set foot on this island, don't you?"

He sniffed himself and gagged.

"Ugh, I smell like a human..."

Zuko waded over to Yakul, undoing the reins.

"You can go wherever you want to, you're free now," he said, before swimming away. Yet Yakul refused, staying close to his master. The lemurs were all returning to their trees as well. They knew what was coming.

The island Sokka lay on was different from the rest. It was the only one exposed to the sky, with no canopy to shelter it from the moonlight. A single leafy tree was there, along with the hollowed out corpse of an ancient tree, bare and empty aside from a few branches that still bloomed as if in protest.

Out there, in the mountains, against the setting full moon and pale, distant light of dawn - it was coming.

The lemurs were all migrating to the tops of the trees to watch, flicking their ears in anticipation as thousands gathered in the canopy. They could see it now - a distant shape appearing out of thin air. It could have been humanoid, if not for the multiple arms. Four, in fact, it had - two enormous whie ones, and two smaller black ones, that were almost vestigial. It lumbered over the land, quadruped body glowing with an almost holy air, as its enormous staring head, black and white with bared teeth that should be frightening, looked straight ahead.

One lemur began to chatter, and others soon joined in, a chorus of noise as if to draw the creature closer to them. It continued its long strides, journeying past them to its entrance back into the forest - to the lone hole on the blanket of green treetops, where Sokka lay dying.

It was not alone, of course. In the distant mountains, a man lay sleeping, wearing a bear's belt to hide its scent. He stirred, lifting his head, and drew in a sharp breath.

"Finally..." Long Feng murmured, "There he is! Come and see! Hurry!"

But his companions refused to come closer. Long Feng furrowed his brow.

"Quick, you idiots, it's the Black and White Spirit! He's the reason we've been sitting around in these stinking animal skins, you know?"

One of the hunters who had joined him cowered.

"But sir, we can't - it's a sin to look at it!"

The other also averted his gaze. Long Feng snorted derisively.

"And you call yourself the greatest hunter in the West. Look."

He reached in the sleeve of his robe under the pelt, withdrawing a scroll of parchment.

"We got a letter of pardon from the Earth King, forgiving us for cutting off the head of the Great Forest Spirit."

In the distance behind them, the monochromatic creature was approaching the opening in the canopy. Long Feng studied it with a detached, analytical air.

"The legends tell us that when day becomes night, the forest spirit Hei Bei turns into the Black and White Spirit. And at sunrise, it changes back."

One of the hunters had forced himself to sit up, looking at the beast with chattering teeth.

"Look! See there! It's happening!" Long Feng said, pointing.

What resembled the smooth, almost rubbery skin of a tiger seal began to grow fuzzy and soft as fur grew in its place. Long limbs grew stout and thick like tree trunks as the vestigial black arms receded into the body, and the Black and White Spirit slowly dipped itself into the entrance to the forest. As he descended, his body kicked up a gust of fierce wind, blowing the trees wildly about much to the joy of the lemurs. And barely a blink later, the creature was gone.

The cool wind blew down over the few green branches of the old tree, like an invisible body was using them as stair steps to descend to the forest floor. The water blew away from the centermost island in resplendent ripples, lapping at Sokka's limp body. Yakul stood stiffly watch, daring not to move aside from the occasional ear flick.

_Thud._

_Thud._

_Thud._

The heavy steps came closer and closer to Sokka, almost predatory in nature. Enormous black paws stepped hard onto the grass, and as they pressed, flowers and ferns erupted from around the feet. Yet, barely had the pressure receded as the beast lifted its paw to take its next step did the flowers wither and die in a sickly brown pile.

The black and white shape approached Sokka, dipping its head low to examine the sapling that Zuko had replanted. Twinkling black eyes, full of life and yet somehow cold, looked at the still-green plant, and with the slightest breath upon it, it too did fade to ashen gray, dropping its dead leaves to the grass. They fell upon Sokka's face, his skin as sickly as them. His fate rested squarely in the hands of Hei Bai now.

* * *

The sun was well over the rolling hills of the forest now, enormous clouds of humid fog being whisked away by the wind. Long Feng and his hunters were climbing down the mountainside from their lookout post, pausing to ensure they were not being followed before entering a hideaway safely tucked behind leaves and vines.

"Take a look, Master Feng," the guard, a young boy named Jet whom Long Feng had forced into servitude, whispered urgently.

"What is it."

"Over there."

At first, all he saw was a rocky cliffside, where wild eagle-hawks were flying about anxiously and cawing to each other. Then, he realized what he was looking at. His eyes widened and he drew in a sharp breath.

Coming up the escarpment were dozens - no, hundreds - of enormous pigs of various kinds. Moo-sows, wooly-pigs, bull-pigs, a menagerie of hybrids making their way up the rocks.

"Look! There must be hundreds of them," Long Feng said.

"Those pigs are not from this region," Jet added, "They must have been traveling for months to get all the way up here."

Long Feng stared at the top of the cliff, almost not daring to believe his eyes. But it was true, what he saw. A boar-q-pine, enormous in size and with frightfully long quills, stood atop the mountain and looked down to its followers as the eagle-hawks circled overhead.

"...that one's Okkoto!" Jet burst out.

"Can't be!" Long Feng protested, "They say he died a hundred years ago!"

"It's him, alright," the guard said, shaking his head, "I know those old tusks. And it looks like he brought along his whole tribe."

Lord Okkoto suddenly flicked his head in their direction, staring darkly. Long Feng threw himself to the ground, out of sight.

"He's seen us! Let's get out of here!"

The boar unleashed a terrifying roar of a squeal, his minions joining in in a sickly chorus that echoed over the hills and chased after Long Feng and his men as they navigated the boulders of a river. Long Feng's earthbending came in handy as he summoned more from the depths of the water to leap nimbly on as the others struggled to keep up.

"Come on, you cowards!" he barked behind himself, "Move! Quickly!"

* * *

Sokka was under the water.

How odd it was, to die of drowning before his wound or the blood-loss finally claimed him.

His hair undulated like seagrass as he felt something drip into the water above him, sending out golden ripples. It was an out of body experience, he knew. Perhaps in these last moments before death, his soul would dissociate and watch his mortal coil slip away.

There was a strange, pale glow above him, seeping through exhausted eyelids. It reminded him of the holy yellow that had surrounded that silhouette he had seen when guiding the two men to safety.

He was still bleeding, he could feel it. Plumes of maroon blood were rising from the hole in his torso, billowing through the water uninterrupted like bonfire smoke in the sky. He was frankly stunned he still had blood to lose at this point. He had lost all feeling in his limbs long before, felt that icy anemic touch grip his body as he sunk more into the soft arms of death's embrace.

Yet, now he did not feel cold at all.

A vision came to him, of big black paws stepping onto the ground, ushering up an explosion of plants, flowers, and mushrooms alike, only for them to rot and decay when the paw lifted away.

Something was closing in on him, on his wound. Some kind of beast, perhaps looking to eat him? If he had a drop of energy left in his bones, he would have fought, or fled, but he could only float limply in the water, wondering how he had not drowned by now, wondering why he was not dead yet.

Something was lapping at his wound, like a great raspy tongue.

Then, nothing.

The dripping returned. He could feel it on his skin this time, landing on his lip. The dew on the canopy above him, percolated from the warm mist, had formed into a heavy droplet.

Slowly, Sokka willed his eyes open, looking at the tree that towered above, golden light dappling through its leaves. Fritillaries and other winged bugs of the forest fluttered above him curiously as he realized he had been pulled to the main shore, off the centermost island. Yakul was nearby, grazing, but when he realized his master was awake, he examined him gingerly.

Sokka felt his surroundings - his cut hair had been tied up into a ponytail again, perhaps to let it dry. He felt instinctively like he should reach up to untie it, like it was blasphemous for this exiled chief-to-be to go back to his ancestral wolf-tail, but he did not have the energy to. He realized his mouth was hanging stupidly open, and forced himself to close it as he lifted his hand to the sore spot on his torso, feeling for the wound. His fingers found the hole in his tunic, but when he reached past the fabric, he felt only unbroken skin.

He gasped, lurching up.

"The bullet wound's gone -!"

He clenched his teeth at the rush of pain and delirium that came with the sudden movement, falling back to the moss with a grunt.

Yakul looked at him with an expression of simultaneous affection and amusement, bowing his head to gently nibble on the hem of Sokka's tunic. Sokka tiredly looked up at him, smiling.

"Yakul..." he mumbled, reaching up and feeling his fox-antelope press its cheek lovely into his right palm. His brief relief and happiness rapidly melted like snow under a hot sun as Yakul lifted his head and Sokka saw a familiar blackish-purple past his sleeve and fingerless gloves. It had spread even more, engulfing most of his palm and making its way to his fingers.

"The mark's still there..." he said, defeated. He glared at it long and hard, before falling back to the moss behind him with wet, angry eyes.

There was a sound of agile feet navigating the banks of the glade - Zuko had returned, clutching a hunk of dried meat in his hand. He paused to stroke Yakul's red fur before turning his attention to Sokka.

"Finally, you're awake," he said coolly, "You know, you really should thank Yakul. He hasn't left your side this whole time."

Sokka opened an eye, looking up at him.

"How'd you know his name's Yakul...?"

"He told me," Zuko said, scratching under the fox-antelope's chin, "And he told me about you. About your village, your people, and your forest. Hei Bai brought you back to life again. He wants you to live."

Zuko stepped closer, kneeling down next to Sokka's head and ripping a piece of the dried meat off with his teeth.

"I had the strangest dream..." Sokka said, voice hoarse from disuse, "There was a black and white creature..."

He was interrupted by the feeling of something pressing against his lips. Zuko was shoving the meat into his face.

"Eat this," he instructed, continuing nudging until Sokka opened his mouth. He tried to chew, but it seemed his energy had all vanished, and something as hard as this, something that would require some hefty work even on a normal day, was beyond his capabilities.

" _Chew_ ," Zuko pressed. But Sokka gave up, letting the piece of meat fall to his neck. Zuko sighed, taking it back and taking a large bite himself. He chewed it until it was fine mush, then bent his head down, pressing their lips together to push the bolus into Sokka's mouth. Sokka squirmed a bit, visibly squeamish, but managed to swallow. Zuko could not help but feel like a mother eagle-hawk feeding its hopeless young as he continued the process, ripping into tough meat and softening it for Sokka. He paused after a moment, looking down in surprise. Comically large tears had formed in Sokka's eyes, seeping out past closed eyelids and running down his cheeks silently. Zuko watched for a moment, Yakul hovering behind him, before continuing.

There came a sound of snapping twigs and rustling ungrowth. Fang had arrived, a blood-red mar on the green landscape. Zuko stood up to greet his father as Yakul watched tentatively.

More noises came behind them as pigs of all sorts drew to the scene, a cacophony of grunts and squeals, now flooding the tranquil grove. Zuko's palms smoked as he stepped over Sokka, standing in front of him defensively. Behind Fang, Ran and Shaw had appeared, standing aside the larger dragon.

 _We are here to kill the humans and save the forest,_ announced one of the tribe, a bull-pig larger than either of the twin hatchlings, _Why are there humans HERE, Fang?!_

 _Humans are everywhere these days_ , Fang replied in a low growl, almost laughing, _Go back to your own mountain. Kill them there. The boy is Zuko, my son._

 _We will kill them_ here _! We will save_ this _forest!_ the bull-pig snuffled, _What is that OTHER human doing here?!_

The other pigs were getting restless, clearly not happy with this lukewarm reception.

"He was shot! And then the great spirit healed his wound!" Zuko said, "This man is not our enemy!"

 _The forest spirit saved HIM?! Saved the life of that loathsome_ runt _?! Why didn't he save Nago?! Is_ he _not the guardian of the forest?! WHY?!_

The other swine screeched and roared, stamping their hooves.

 _Hei Bai gives life, and takes life away,_ Fang said with a calm hiss, _Life and death are his alone. Or have you pigs forgotten that?_

 _You lie!_ the bull-pig bellowed, _You must have begged the forest spirit to spare his life! But you did not beg for Nago, did you?!_

 _Nago was afraid to die,_ Fang rumbled, _Now I too carry within my breast a poisoned human bullet._

Zuko's steeled exterior shattered as he blanched, turning in horror to the dragon.

 _Nago fled, and the darkness took him,_ Fang continued, _I remain, and contemplate my death._

Zuko rushed to his father's side, grabbing his front arm.

"Father! Please ask Hei Bai to save you!"

A knowing smile danced on Fang's reptilian lips.

_I have lived long enough, Zuko. Soon Hei Bai will let me rest forever._

"All these years you defended the forest spirit! He must save you!" Zuko protested. Before Fang could reply, the pigs began to grow rowdy again.

 _You are not fooling us!_ the bull-pig said, _Nago was beautiful and strong! He would not have run from anything! ...you dragons must have eaten him!_

"QUIET!" Zuko snarled, livid, "Watch what you say, you filthy pig!"

"Gods of the mountain...please listen to me..." came a soft, strangled voice. Zuko looked in shock to Sokka, who lay still unmoving on the moss.

"Nago died far from here...and _I_ was the one who killed him. He had...become some kind of demon. One day, he attacked our village."

He limply moved, untying his right sleeve.

"If you want proof, look at my hand...where he touched me..."

He weakly held up his arm, exposing the vile mark on his tan skin. Even since he had looked at it last, it had spread more, now leaking onto his pointer finger and thumb. Zuko felt his jaw go slack at the sight.

"I came here to beg Hei Bai to lift Nago's curse from me," Sokka continued, folding his fingers over his palm, "He healed the bullet wound in my side...but the demon mark remains."

He opened his eyes as his arm fell to the ground, staring tiredly into space.

"First it will tear my soul apart, and then it will kill me."

Someone else was approaching. Based on the rattle of quills, it must have been a boar-q-pine - an absolutely massive one, judging by the heavy fall of its footsteps. It dwarfed even Fang in height, though not length.

 _Okkoto,_ Fang purred, _Finally, a boar who will listen to reason._

Lord Okkoto approached Sokka, breathing in his scent with a massive snout. Yakul leaned back on his legs, not fond of this beast but not wanting to leave his master's side.

"No! Lord Okkoto, wait!" Zuko pleaded, rushing forward, "Please! You mustn't eat him!"

Lord Okkoto lifted his head, now drinking in Zuko's smell instead.

_Ah...you must be Fang's human child, aren't you. I've heard of you._

He exhaled a warm breath in Zuko's face as the dragon prince realized, looking up into blank, unseeing gray-blue eyes.

"You're blind..."

 _Stand back,_ he said in a deep, booming voice, _I will not eat him._

"It's alright, Zuko..." Sokka said, making Zuko jump at the mention of his name from this stranger, "My Lord Okkoto, what I said about Nago's death was the truth."

Lord Okkoto approached him again as Sokka held up an arm. The boar drank in his scent, passing judgement as the rest of the tribe watched silently.

_...I believe you...and I thank you for it, young one. I am only grieved and ashamed that such a demon has come from our tribe._

The pigs hung their heads as Okkoto raised his.

"O mighty lord," Sokka asked, "Is there a way to lift Nago's curse from me...?"

Okkoto studied him darkly.

_...leave this forest, for the next time we meet, I will have to kill you._

_You cannot win against the humans,_ Fang chuckled, _Their guns will destroy you all, if their bending does not._

_Look on my tribe, Fang. We grow small...and we grow stupid. We will soon be nothing but squealing game that the humans hunt for their meat._

_You'd risk everything on one last battle. That's just what the humans want._

_I do not ask for the help of the dragon tribe,_ Okkoto said firmly, _Even if every one of us dies, it will be a battle that the humans will never forget._

And with that, he turned back to his pigs, leading them away from the grove back into the main forest. As they disappeared, and silence fell upon the water again, Zuko's eyes latched onto a blot on the horizon. One of black, and white.

"...the forest spirit..." he breathed.

Hei Bai stood upon the water with the dainty weight of a leaf, before turning his head to Zuko. They latched eyes for a heartbeat, then the panda trotted off, disappearing into the woods.

* * *

In stark contrast to the calm of the glade, the fields around Iron Town were fraught with panic and chaos as hippo-cows were ushered in frantic herds back into the safety of the halls.

"C'mon! Keep your cows together!" one guard yelled over the ruckus, "Hurry!"

It was clear why they were running - higher up on the hill, warriors were bearing down on Iron Town, hoisting bows, spears, glaives, and sword, while others bended fireballs and flame. Lady Azula stood behind a row of gun-bearing men.

"Get ready now!" she said, as non-benders prepared flint and benders warmed their palms, "A little bit closer..."

Only when the savages were bearing down on them did she order them to fire, a cloud of acrid smoke exploding in front of them amidst the deafening boom of bullet blasts. The bandits were laid to waste, those in the front of the group mercilessly slain or mortally wounded, others missing limbs or suffering other injuries as they struggled back.

"Reload!" Zhao barked, "Fire!"

A commander of the harriers was blown off his komodo-rhino even as he ordered them to attack, a shot clean into his chest by Azula's gun. She could firebend, but this was easier. Why dirty her hair if unneeded?

Mai, who had joined her, handed her a replacement, already loaded. They traded, Mai taking the fired gun and beginning to ready it for the next shot. Azula took aim and fired at yet another commander in the backlines, again knocking him to the ground off his steed.

At the very top of the opposing hill, as the highwaymen fell back amidst more oppressive firepower, Long Feng had arrived, along with his entourage. He exhaled boredly.

"Well, I see somebody is going to have to go play the peacemaker," he said, looking to one of his followers, "Take our benders and riflemen and hide behind the cliffs."

"Yes, sir. Let's go!"

A group of green-robed men with gold hems and matching hats rose from the grass, following the leader.

"Stay there until I send for you," Long Feng said, making his way down past the carnage.

"Come on, let's keep the hippo-cows moving! We have to get back to Iron Town!" he heard someone yelling to the workers as Azula made her way after them, Mai holding the umbrella over her. Zhao and the straggler guards fired warning shots after themselves before following suit.

"There they are! Coming around the path!" Jin said, having climbed to the wooden crow's nest-like watchtower over the gates to Iron Town. Other women, Ty Lee included, had gathered there as well.

The hippo-cows were far calmer now, no longer stampeding to safety as the men herded them along. Long Feng was standing atop a boulder on the path, watching them pass. Jet and another man, both disguised, rushed up to him.

"The hunters are ready, sir."

"Excellent. Well done, my boy. Go and spread the word, we'll be moving out presently."

"Yessir," the two nodded, heading off. Long Feng looked up - the lady of the hour was nearing. He stepped down and joined her, walking side by side.

"Greetings, Long Feng," she said coolly.

"Well, I've got the Earth King breathing down my neck, and _you're_ busy playing war with Governor Ukano."

"And you would have nothing to do with Ukano being here, now would you."

"Of course not. Whatever made you say that?"

"He'll call a 'truce' if I give him half my iron."

"Is that so?" Long Feng chuckled, "Well, he's a touch greedy, isn't he? But all the same, you might as well let him have his iron."

Azula said nothing, pursing her lips.

"Listen, Azula, the pigs are gathering for battle. You know what that means. You made me a promise, my dear. Now once you get me Hei Bai's head, then we can come back and destroy Ukano together."

Azula still did not speak, her steely gaze fixed on the gates to Iron Town.

"Watch out, milady! There's a rider coming, get in!" the women above called to her in fear. Azula and Long Feng turned, and sure enough a Fire Nation officer atop a komodo-rhino was rushing down the path after them, with two others in tow.

"Well, speak of the devil, a messenger from Governor Ukano," Long Feng said cheerily.

"We have guests," Azula smirked, "Mind your manners, ladies."

"We will!" they chorused above as she and Long Feng entered into the safety of the walls. Another gaggle of girls was just inside.

"Welcome back, my lady!" they greeted Azula in a sing-song voice, as the gate came slamming down hot on Long Feng's heels. He jumped away, surprised, then quickly gained his composure.

"Wait, won't you even talk to the man?" he asked Azula. She did not answer, returning to her quarters.

The messenger had arrived at the gates, slowing to a stop.

"Lady Azula! Mistress of Iron Town! I bring a message to you, from my Lord Ukano! You have fought valiantly, and well! Now open your gates so we may speak with you!"

The girls looked down at him smugly, all wielding rifles.

"Hm! We can hear you just fine from down there!" Ty Lee said.

"Milady took this mountain away from the gods, the boars, and the beasts!" Suki said.

"And now that it's worth something, you want it!" June added, "Well, you won't get it!"

"The brazen impudence!" the messenger snapped, "You ladies need to be taught some respect!"

"Respect? What's that?" June cackled.

"We haven't had any respect since the day we were born!" Ty Lee said. The group of girls all blew raspberries at the three.

"You want some of our iron, here you go!" Jin laughed, firing a shot at the ground near the komodo-rhino and startling it into running back the way it came, the other two following close behind. The girls laughed heartily as they disappeared around the path.

"Heh, they are really something. They'll fight forest gods or human thugs, doesn't matter to them," Long Feng was saying, watching them descend from the watchtower and return to business, "They're an amazing bunch of girls, they were wasted in the brothels and servant jobs."

Azula was studying the scroll he had given her.

"Impressive...for a piece of paper."

"Well, you know it has to be the best hunters and trappers around. Remember, my dear lady, we're after a god, not just a beast."

"Girls...come here," Azula said, as two came closer.

"Yes, milady? What is it?"

"Do you have any idea who this paper has come from?" Azula said, showing them the ornate characters, "From the Earth King himself."

"...that's nice...who's he?"

"Is he supposed to be important?"

"I'm serious, who is he? Should we know?"

Long Feng was decidedly sour-faced by now.

"Yes, they're _really_ something."

Azula handed him back the scroll, dismissing the girls. She turned to him, serious now.

"Everyday that we cut trees and dig for iron, the forest and its creatures grow weaker. In my way, there are no unnecessary losses, Long Feng."

"Listen, you owe me and I've come to collect," he snapped, "When you needed riflemen, I sent them. And without those riflemen, you lose Iron Town."

He quickly adopted a falsely innocent tone.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did that sound like a threat?" he said sweetly.

"Don't tell me the Earth King believes that wives' tale about the great spirit's head granting him immortality," she said.

"I'm sure I don't know what the Earth King believes, I'm just a humble merchant's son. I'm just trying to get by."

Azula knew that was a lie, and perhaps Long Feng's favorite. He hardly looked like the Grand Secretariat or the Earth King's right-hand man, what with his charisma and charm, but Azula had done business with Long Feng long enough to see past that to his sinister, poisonous manipulations. Still, he had her painted into a corner - those riflemen were important to Iron Town. To the protection of her girls.

She stood up.

"I keep my promises. Anyway, we have fought the pigs before and they're much easier to kill than Fang and his dragon hatchlings."

She turned to make eye contact.

"So you can call out that shady bunch of Dai Li you've got hidden under the cliff, Long Feng."

She swept away as Long Feng laughed loudly, artificially.

"So I've been found out! Oh, just one more thing, my lady."

She paused, begrudgingly facing him.

"Did a stranger come through here by any chance? He's a young man riding a great big fox-antelope."

"...came...and went."

And with that, she dismissed herself.

The Dai Li and Long Feng's other assistants, hunters, trappers, and miscellaneous unfortunate souls forced into servitude soon flooded into Iron Town, making a place for themselves. Azula had instructed for only hospitality towards their visitors, with denizens of the town preparing extra food and beds for the new additions. Of course, that did not stop them from gossipping amongst themselves.

"A bad-looking bunch if you ask me," one woman was saying.

"Those men are no ordinary hunters," said Chan, his arm still in a sling, "They're killers."

"Killers...?"

Elsewhere, Azula's inner circle of girls had gathered with her to discuss.

"My lady, at least let some of us go with you!" Mai was protesting.

"Yes, you can't trust these men, they're strangers!"

"That's right!"

"What if something goes wrong and we're stuck here?" Jin asked, "We can't help you!"

"You said yourself we're better shots than the men are," Suki added.

"That's precisely why I want you all here in Iron Town," Azula said, "I can deal with forest gods, it's humans I'm worried about. Once Hei Bai is dead, we don't know what will happen. Will Long Feng be satisfied with the creature's head, or will he be after my ironworks as well? The Dai Li may turn on us, and if that happens, I'll need every one of you here to fight them. Remember, you can't trust men."

The girls nodded firmly.

"Don't worry about her ladyship!" Zhao spoke up from the back, "I'll be right at her side, protecting her!"

"That's what we're afraid of," Ty Lee grumbled.

"What?!"

"Even if you were a woman, you'd STILL be an idiot!" she snarked, sticking her tongue out at him. Even Azula laughed.

* * *

At the nest of the dragons, a cliffside roost, Sokka felt himself stir as shooting pain raced up his arm. He felt his right fingers spasming as he gritted his teeth, beads of sweat rolling down his face. Defeated, he opened his eyes to look around.

He was laying on animal pelts of some kind, with one draped over him in lieu of a blanket. Even despite the biting cold air of the night, illuminated by the crescent moon’s gentle glow, the rocky cavern was warm with the natural fiery heat of the dragons.

Speaking of, one of them was beside him – the prince, Zuko. He lay on the stone, on dried and charred leaves, curled into a tight ball. Only in sleep were the furrows of rage and scorn erased from his face, replaced with tranquility and a mouth that hung slightly open. Sokka lay there, committing every detail to memory – the porcelain skin married by that dark red scar, the thick tangles of black hair, the slight sparks that danced past Zuko’s lips when he exhaled, the way he furled himself smaller when the cool wind swept in.

He was beautiful.

The only thing that could have tore Sokka’s gaze away was his arm, which it sorely did, burning and throbbing in agony and forcing himself to grip it hard with his other hand. He sat up, grinding his teeth to resist making a noise that would wake Zuko, before standing and making his way to the entrance of the nest. His recuperation had proven successful – he had the energy now to stand and walk and hold his eyes open for longer than a few minutes – but his arm still burned, the mark still bore into his flesh with ravenous teeth.

The lip of the roost was a large slab of rock that overlooked the valley of trees below, the green leaves desaturated under the stars. Wind kicked up Sokka’s hair – which he noted was still tied back – and ruffled his tunic as he looked down at the forest, far below him, the river that cut through it nothing but a tiny serpent from up here.

_You know you could always jump, boy. End it all._

The voice behind him was more of a growl than spoken word. Sokka flinched a bit, turning to look at Fang who was seated atop the roof of the cave, his snakelike body curling around itself as his whiskers undulated freely.

_As soon as your strength returns, the mark will spread and destroy you._

Sokka held those golden eyes evenly.

“It feels like I must have been asleep for weeks. I had a dream that Zuko was by my side, nursing me back to health.”

_I was hoping you’d cry out in your sleep…then I would have bitten your head off to silence you._

“It’s a beautiful forest,” Sokka continued, ignoring his threat despite how it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand, “Are Okkoto and the pigs on the move yet?”

 _Yes,_ the dragon said in a tone of frustration, _The pigs are marching. The trees cry out as they die, but you cannot hear them. I lie here, I listen to the pain of the forest and feel the ache of the bullet in my chest, and I dream of the day when I will finally crunch that gun-woman’s head in my jaws._

“Fang, why can’t the forest and the humans live together? Why can’t we stop this fighting _now?_ ”

_The humans are gathering for the final battle. The rain of their bullets and the flames of their bending will burn us all._

“And what happens to Zuko?” Sokka pressed, narrowing his blue eyes, “What’s your plan, to let him die with you?!”

_Typical. Selfish. You think like a human. Zuko is my son, he is of the dragon tribe. When the forest dies, so does he._

“You must set him free! He’s not a dragon, he’s human!” Sokka begged.

 _Silence, boy!_ Fang snarled, baring his teeth, _How dare you speak to a god like that? I caught his human parents defiling my forest. They threw one of their babies at my feet as they ran away. Instead of eating him, I raised him as my own. Now, my poor, ugly, beautiful son is neither human_ nor _dragon. How could you help him?!_

“I don’t know…” Sokka said falteringly, “But at least we might find a way to live.”

Fang’s reptilian lips parted as he laughed darkly.

_How? Will you join forces with Zuko and fight the humans?_

“No. All that would do is cause more hatred.”

The dragon almost seemed to be smirking.

_There is nothing you can do, boy. Soon the demon mark will spread and kill you. Now leave this place at sunrise. Return, and I shall kill you._

Sokka opened his mouth to speak, but thought better of it, bowing his head and returning to his bed of pelts. Zuko stirred, opening his eyes and raising his head up to look at Sokka as he sank cross-legged onto the platypus-bearskin. He was staring straight ahead, in meditation – Zuko was not sure he had even noticed he was awake. He could see the burn mark under Sokka’s eye from his flame, and was reminded of his own.

“…you’re feeling alright?” he ventured gingerly. Sokka jumped a bit, turning to look at him with a soft smile.

“I’m fine, thanks to you and Hei Bai.”

Zuko allowed himself a single look of tenderness upon the human before he rolled over, returning to the embrace of slumber. After a pause, Sokka took the topmost pelt and draped it over him for warmth.

* * *

The singing of birds and the gentle chatter of forest fauna were what woke Sokka the next morning. The skins had been replaced over him, and the roost was empty. He hauled himself up, approaching the entrance and looking out the ocean of greenery. The sky was a beautiful turquoise, filled with large, fluffy clouds.

He returned to the nest, looking around in the vain hope he would see Zuko. Instead, he found his belongings, neatly sorted into piles, along with two pouches made of leaves tied with vines. Inside was likely dried meat and other supplies for the journey.

“Right…” he sighed, remembering Fang’s ominous portent.

After donning his helmet and affixing his sword to his hip, he made his way down the mountain and found Yakul grazing on a patch of grass at the base. The fox-antelope looked to him expectantly, his reins back on his face.

“Yakul,” Sokka greeted his trusted steed, “Sorry if I worried you.”

He instinctively moved to scamper down the slope, only to feel his legs give out and send him tumbling right up to Yakul.

“I guess my legs are still pretty weak, huh?” he joked as Yakul nuzzled him.

The two turned to look to their left. The blue dragon, Ran, was perched neatly on its haunches by the cliff, studying them. Both Yakul and Sokka returned his gaze, before the fox-antelope dipped his head to allow Sokka to climb aboard. The dragon stood up in a shimmer of scales, and began escorting them down the rocky escarpments and grassy paths back to civilization.

“It’s so quiet…” Sokka said, looking at the forest around them, “I wonder where our friends, the little lemurs, went.”

Ran deposited them on a dry riverbed, which was now littered with enormous boulders like massive steppingstones leading back to Iron Town. Sure enough, the stink was permeating towards them.

“Ah, I can smell the iron works…” Sokka said, turning to look back at Ran, who was sitting, unmoving, to ensure they left.

“…thanks for showing us the way!” Sokka called to him with a smile, “I have another favor to ask!”

He reached into his secret tunic pocket, withdrawing the betrothal necklace Katara had given him. His last memory of home. Yet, he knew who it belonged to.

“Will you please give this to Zuko for me?”

He threw the necklace up in the air, and the hatchling neatly caught it in his maw before returning into the undergrowth. Sokka watched him leave, before urging Yakul back to humanity.

“Let’s go.”

Elsewhere, Zuko was on the back of Shaw, the red dragon, racing through the forest to Fang’s side. He had donned a new mask, made from the remains of his old blue oni one – this one only covered his eyes, the comical grin having been shattered off, exposing instead his stern frown.

They reached Fang’s side, him lying in a secret place atop the knoll, where the view afforded from between the branches showed the human settlements well.

They had gathered in the hundreds, set up in neat colonies on the high rock cliffs and lower fields. Enormous clouds of billowing orange gas were floating up into the sky from green flames tended to by the Dai Li.

“It stinks…and it burns my eyes…” Zuko said, covering his nose.

_That’s what they want. They’re trying to kill our sense of smell._

Zuko studied the topmost group, seeing a familiar black cloak.

“It’s that damn woman again.”

Lady Azula, Long Feng, and Zhao were approaching the edge of the cliff, looking for the best vantage point. She turned to look towards the distant canopy, as if right at them.

“She knows we’re out here,” Zuko hissed.

_It’s a trap. And a stupid one._

“What?”

_They’re trying to lure the pigs out of the forest._

“No…!”

_The humans are planning something._

“Then we have to find Okkoto while there’s still time to stop him! Or else they’ll all be killed!”

_Okkoto’s too stubborn. He won’t listen. None of them will. They may even know it’s a trap. The pigs are a proud race - the last one left alive will still be charging blindly forward._

The pigs were, indeed, charging to the battle site somewhere in the forest, painted in war paint from the clay. Zuko exhaled, furrowing his brow, and watched the humans begin to cut at the trees at the edge of the forest.

“Why chop the trees down?”

_To make them angry…which makes them stupid._

Zuko quietly pressed against Fang’s scales.

“Father, I have to go. Okkoto’s blind, I _must_ be his eyes. You understand?”

_Do as you must._

Fang watched Zuko savor the warmth of his scales, perhaps for the last time.

_You know…that boy wanted to share his life with you._

“I hate him!” Zuko choked out past tears, “I hate ALL humans!”

Ran had arrived, bearing in his jaws the gift from Sokka. Zuko turned in surprise.

“…from Sokka? For me…?” he asked, before taking it. The pendant glimmered at him.

“…pretty…” he said eventually, tying it around his neck.

 _You two stay with Zuko,_ Fang said to his hatchlings, _I must go to the forest spirit._

“Right, let’s go,” Zuko said, clambering aboard Shaw as the three joined the swarm of boars preparing their war paint and charging forward.

“The Fang tribe has come to fight with you!” Zuko said loudly, “Where can I find Lord Okkoto?”

The pigs squealed in response, instructing him.

“Good luck, my friend!” the dragon prince said, as he and his brothers took to the front of the attack.

* * *

The heavy clouds in the sky had become too full, the humid air buffeting Sokka as rain began to pour. It was a summer storm, the kind that would come down hard for a short time. Yakul did not mind the water, though Sokka hunkered down on his back as they passed through the thick fog. He looked around as the enormous clouds, low to the ground, rolled past him, sweeping him in and out of darkness, but saw no one else around on the hills.

It was quiet…too quiet.

Then came the explosion.

A vision came to Sokka, of pigs thrown into the air by fire, of a masked Zuko bearing down on the humans as his fists wielded flames.

But…this was not that explosion. The sound he was hearing was gunfire…and it was coming from the opposite direction of the forest.

“…it’s coming from Iron Town.”

As the rain receded and the fog began to clear, he could see the distant village, see clouds of smoke and gunfire blasts. He knew what had happened – seeing Lady Azula and the men were gone, the treacherous Ukano had launched a full-on assault on the town.

“Let’s go!” Sokka said, urging Yakul closer.

Ahead were a group of Ukano’s thugs.

“Halt! Who goes there?!” barked the leader.

“Them again!” Sokka groaned, drawing out his sword with a satisfying _shing!_.

“Halt, I said!”

“Out of the way!” he demanded, but the highwayman would not budge, readying his glaive with a war cry. Sokka drew in a breath, readying his hand as if to attack, but instead Yakul cleverly leapt over the swing of the scythe and soared over the crowd, landing neatly in the water and beginning a fervent underwater paddle to the opposing shore.

The fox-antelope did have to come up for air eventually, lifting his horned head out of the water as Sokka looked behind them.

“What the devil was that?” one of Ukano’s men burst out, as the others prepared bows and sent a rain of arrows down on the two. Sokka used his sword to bat and cut them away as Yakul continued his frantic swim.

“Don’t waste your arrows, he’s knocking them away!” he heard one yell.

As he and Yakul drew closer, they could see the true extent of the carnage. Bodies floated in the water, and it was clear that the troops, bearing the flags of their leader, had burned their way in past the outer wall. They were making off with supplies as reinforcements entered, a war of attrition waging inside as both sides returned fire.

Up at the inner wall, Jin raised her dirty head, gasping.

“Ty Lee! Come and look!”

Ty Lee approached, eyes widening.

“It can’t be! It’s Sokka!”

“So it’s not a ghost!”

“SOKKAAA!” Ty Lee called down to him.

“Ty Lee!” Sokka yelled back, swimming hurriedly closer, “Are you alright?!”

“We’re alright! Ukano’s idiots thought they’d try and ambush us while our men were away! Thought we’d just roll over! But we showed them!”

“Sure did!”

“Where’s Lady Azula?!” Sokka said as he and Yakul reached the shore.

“She took every able-bodied man and went to kill the forest spirit!” Ty Lee replied as he climbed through the pikes littering the base of the walls, “We’re cut off here! We can’t even get a message to Lady Azula!”

“The forest spirit…” Sokka breathed, “That explains the other explosions…”

“Hey! Sir!”

It was Chan, peeking over the wall.

“I’ve still got your boomerang!”

“Aren’t you gonna tell him you’ve got his cloak and saddle too?!” Ty Lee snapped.

“Oh, I do?”

“Ugh, you’re useless!” she growled as he threw the boomerang down to Sokka.

“Many thanks, Chan!” Sokka said as he caught it, “I’ll try and bring you some help! Can you hold out?!”

“Don’t worry! We can always pour hot iron on ‘em!” Ty Lee cackled.

“Bring back Lady Azula! And don’t take too long!” Suki added, as a slot in the wall was removed and the tip of a rifle poked out of it. It fired behind Sokka, at the enforcements on boats, splashing into the water.

“Haha…I missed,” said one of the bandaged men from the hut Sokka had seen before, as he looked down, “They’re bringing boats across the river!”

“Go and get Lady Azula!” another said, this one female, “We’ll hold them off as long as we can!”

“I’ll be back! I promise!” Sokka bellowed, as arrows began to flit dangerously close to him, before darting off and hopping atop Yakul’s back. The two sped off along the shoreline, back to the forest.

“We’ll be here!” Ty Lee called after him, as an arrow nearly took Chan’s ear off.

As Yakul galloped away across the sand with Sokka in tow, scouts atop the hillsides spotted him.

"Get him! Stop that man!" instructed the commander of the group, as another fired a warning arrow into the sky. It whistled loudly, an alarm that Sokka could hear as well. He glanced behind him as more of Ukano's men on the backs of komodo-rhinos charged parallel to them.

"Looks like they're gonna try to cut us off," Sokka mused, "Run, Yakul!"

The lumbering rhinos were no match for Yakul's dainty and nimble legs as he leapt atop rocks and fallen trees to race in front of the charging men. He kept a decent distance, but Sokka could feel their four harriers gaining.

"You two, go that way!" one barked, splitting them into two teams of two as they raced upwards. Yakul paused briefly at the top of the steep hill as he circled, catching his breath, before continuing over the slanted tops of the muddy knoll towards the enormous plume of black smoke ahead. Yakul balked as they breached the lip of the hill, pulling back in horror as Sokka stared, mouth agape.

Pure black clouds were streaming towards the sky at the other end of the fields, the stench scalding Sokka's nose and eyes and forcing him to press his wrist to his mouth. This must have been the site of one of those explosions he had heard.

"Burning animal flesh..." he hissed in disgust.

An arrow whizzed through the air, landing squarely in Yakul's hindquarters before Sokka could react to strike it away. Making a pained yelp, the fox-antelope lurched forward, the two of them tumbling down the rocks into a divot between the two knolls.

"Yakul!" Sokka cried out, leaping to his feet and rushing over to his beloved friend. The arrow in his rump was lodged firmly in place, leaving him unable to even get up as he squirmed and thrashed in a panic. Sokka scrambled to pull it out as he heard the war cry of two of Ukano's thugs bearing down on them, glaives at the ready. He pulled it free from the bloody, tender fur before readying his boomerang.

As he threw it, it dinked hopelessly off of the man's metal helmet, forcing Sokka to roll out of the way of his charge and withdraw his sword. Another arrow flew to strike him, knocking off his wolf helmet and sending it rolling away with loud clanks.

One of the men had turned, charging him again. Sokka pulled himself to his feet as his grip tightened on the handle of his sword. He could vaguely see the mark spreading up over his thumb as he squeezed the hilt, ready to strike.

He moved too fast for the man to register what he had done until he saw his own arm soaring into the sky, see his own blood flying in thick droplets. Sokka again rolled out of the way of the glaive as it smashed point-down near him, watching the warrior limply fall off the back of his komodo-rhino.

The other attacker was still there, having picked up Sokka's boomerang. He threw it in an attempt to catch the boy unexpectedly, but Sokka knew his own weapon well, snatching it out of the air as he held his sword with his teeth. A sharp returning blow and the second one was dead on the ground, before his boomerang returned to his side safely.

The two that had split up were back now, charging towards him.

"STAY BACK!" Sokka warned, but the remaining troop was unyielding. He craned his arm back, letting his boomerang fly with a piercing whistle, watching the head of the rightmost one fly clean off his shoulders from the inhuman strength Sokka now had in his right arm. Seeming to sense he was outmatched, the other quickly reined his komodo-rhino back, retreating. When Sokka was sure he was gone, he rushed to Yakul's side.

The fox-antelope was struggling to walk, though he was now standing. His injured leg was bent, hovering off the ground as he hopped limpidly forward.

"Show me your wound!"

Sokka looked at the blood, the deep exposed hole, and realized he could not force his steed to continue in this state.

"You'll have to stay here! Wait for me! I'll come back for you!"

He attempted to tear away, to the woods, but Yakul was unrelenting, chasing after him as fast as he could on three legs.

"I said _stay!_ " Sokka pleaded as he hurried over the rocky ravine, but Yakul refused, sliding after him slowly. Exhaling in defeat, Sokka raced back, taking the reins and escorting his injured fox-antelope after himself.

"We're almost there, my friend..." he reassured gently as they hurried towards the acrid smoke in the distance.

The ground here was littered with bodies of pigs, both intact and strewn into pieces. The carnage spanned as far as the eye could see. The only color were the shattered and charred remains of red paper umbrellas used for shelter - the green grass had been burned away. Some pockets of fire still burned, only adding to the vile scent of flesh as Sokka and Yakul navigated through the maze of bodies.

Sokka paused as he came across a divot in the ground - a mass grave, filled with the bodies of Iron Town men, their faces covered in woven straw blankets. One was left alive, sitting in the corner of the hole with his head in his hands, a shovel by his side. Sokka swallowed hard, selfishly glad the identities of the men were hidden, afraid he would see someone he recognized. He clambered down to the man, Yakul staying behind.

Before he could place a hand on the man's back, a harsh voice rang out.

"Who goes there?"

Two Dai Li agents approached them, narrowing their eyes.

"My orders are no outsiders permitted here."

"Alright, but I've just come from Iron Town," Sokka snarled, "I have a message for Lady Azula.Tell me where I can find her."

"The Azula girl is not here. Give me the message, I'll make sure she gets it."

Sokka could tell by his tone that he spoke only lies.

"I must speak with her. Now _where is she."_

"It's - it's really you?!"

Sokka looked past the Dai Li as a group of living men rushed forward. One of them he recognized immediately from his evening dinner - Jee, the one who had asked if his arm hurt.

"You're still alive, lad?!" he said in disbelief, hurrying into the hole to grip Sokka's shoulders as if unsure if he was a spirit or not.

"It looks like you men had a worse time than I did."

"We've been burying our friends all day..." Jee said grimly.

"It was horrible! Horrible!" another said as others joined them.

"Iron Town has come under attack," Sokka said in a low voice, the men around him gasping, "The women and the war survivors have fallen back to the inner wall. We haven't got a lot of time."

"Those greedy bastards," Jee spat.

"Ukano must have just been WAITING for us to leave Iron Town!"

"Now I must find Lady Azula," Sokka pressed.

"But she's off hunting down Hei Bai!" Jee said.

"Then someone's gotta stop her, call her back!"

"If you're all done, I want you out of here," the Dai Li agent growled as more survivors still began to gather, "The rest of you, keep digging!"

"Wait! What about Iron Town?!"

"That's right! It's our home!" Jee agreed, as the crowd now turned their attention to the Dai Li, yelling in anger.

"What do they expect us to do, just abandon Iron Town?!" Chit Sang, the one at Sokka's side, grumbled as the man on the ground lifted his head from his hands weakly to watch the argument.

"You heard the boy! We haven't a moment to lose!"

"Send a message to Lady Azula!"

"The forest is too big!" the Dai Li roared, "No messenger would have a chance of finding her!"

"Send out a hunter! What else are they good for?!" Jee retorted angrily as the crowd grew more raucous still.

"Lady Azula is just being used by Long Feng," Chit Sang muttered.

"Tell me something," Sokka said, "When you fought with the boars, were there any dragons with them? Did you see Zuko? The dragon boy?"

Chit Sang looked at him in surprise.

"I have no idea...it was pitch-black when the animals came at us."

"He was there. I saw him."

The man at their feet spoke, voice barely more than a tremor. He was holding himself, trembling from the trauma he must have endured.

"I was right at the front line, I saw everything...everything...!"

Sokka knelt down beside him, rubbing his back.

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure...! Everything started happening so fast, it was like a nightmare...!" the man sobbed, pressing his head to his knees.

"Long Feng and the Dai Li put us in front as bait to lure the pigs in," Chit Sang said, "They didn't tell us about the land mines under our feet, or the grenades coming in on top of us."

Sokka could visualize it, thinking back to the cacophonous explosions he had heard. The pigs charging blindly forward as Fang had put it, only to be blown into the sky by the massive firepower of the bombs, to be burned alive by the fire of the benders. Among them, Zuko, as stubborn as the rest, still forcing his way forward on the backs of the hatchlings. For every human felled, ten pigs followed suit as the Dai Li placed grenades into rocky cases and earthbended them down onto the pigs that made it past the mines. A rain of animal bodies and explosions, the rank smell of burning flesh and blood - human and pig alike - all while Lady Azula, Long Feng, and Zhao watched cruelly from their perch. Sokka's blood boiled, thinking of Zuko trying to reach them through the scarlet landscape of fire.

Suddenly, he lifted his head. He could hear something - feel something - from the largest pile of pig bodies nearby. Something moving.

He clambered out of the hole, rushing for the noises - it was Ran, buried under the corpses, unable to squirm his way out. His beautiful blue scales were marred with blood and scorch marks.

"Where is he?! Where's Zuko?!" Sokka asked desperately as he moved to try and lift the bodies off. His tainted arm did not grant him the strength he needed at this moment, but he persevered anyway, straining against the dead weight. Ran snarled and squirmed.

"Take it easy! I'm trying to get you out...!"

Chit Sang had followed him, yelping at the sight of Ran.

"There's a dragon over here! Hey! Hurry! Kid, what are you doing?!"

Sokka ignored him, still grappling with the pig body.

"What's going on?" Jee asked as he came over.

"Move!" the Dai Li agent barked, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I have got to find Lady Azula...!" Sokka wheezed, "This dragon's gonna help me find her...!"

"You're on _their_ side, aren't you, boy," the agent said darkly, bending some of the nearby pebbles into deadly sharp points.

"Stand aside!" the second one said, pushing his way forward and doing the same.

"What's more important to all of you?!" Sokka pleaded, "The head of the forest spirit, or saving your town?!"

He jerked his head to the side as the sharpened pebble nearly struck his neck, lodging into the animal skin. One strike to the right vein and Sokka would bleed out in seconds.

"Hey! Don't!" one of the men cried out, as the other Dai Li bent more rocks in a shower upon Sokka. He dodged them as best he could, but the body was too heavy to lift at the same time, leaving him sinking as it threatened to crush him.

"That's enough now!"

The Dai Li were not listening, readying more points, but Jee had had enough. He smashed his shovel over the head of one as the other was beaten into submission with rakes and umbrellas. The men of Iron Town swarmed down into the ravine.

"Come on, let's get this thing off of him! Altogether now!" Jee commanded as everyone worked together to lift the pig's body up.

A chorus of _Heave! Heave! Heave!_ went up as Sokka pushed his back up, slowly gaining the ability to stand. Ran wiggled himself free, bolting to the lip of the hole. He looked over curiously as Yakul approached him, limping. The two seemed to share a silent conversation, sniffing each other and pressing noses together as the townsfolk watched in awe.

"After you come through the swamp, take cover by the lake until we get there," Sokka was instructing the crowd as they nodded in assent.

"Be careful," Jee warned, "Those riflemen with milady belong to Long Feng."

"Here," Sokka said, handing over his boomerang, "Take this, where I'm going it won't be of any use."

He scrambled up to his fox-antelope, embracing his head.

"You go with them, Yakul," he said, "Look after him!"

He and Ran raced into the forest, side by side, as the men watched them go.

"Find Zuko! That's where we'll find Lady Azula!"

* * *

Deep in the forest, the hunters and Dai Li were making their way to Hei Bai's glade. Some were carrying an ornamental iron case with a latching lid - something to seal the head in.

"Come on, keep moving, straight ahead," Long Feng said, watching the procession go by, "Today we finish this."

A hunter approached behind them, wearing an armadillo-bearskin over his shoulders and face painted red.

"Sir."

"Yes?" Long Feng said, turning, "Ah, have you spotted them?"

"Okkoto's badly wounded, but he and the dragon boy are making their way to the realm of the forest spirit."

"So, they're going to beg him for his help, are they? Keep after them, but stay out of sight, or you'll frighten Hei Bai away."

"Yes, sir, I understand."

The hunter darted away, Azula watching side-eyed.

"...that was pig's blood painted on his face, wasn't it," she said.

"Indeed. Little trade secret. Don't want to smell human."

Not that pig's blood was a commodity in short supply. It was everywhere - and more still poured from Okkoto's ravaged wounds as he staggered forward, guided by Zuko's bloody hands. Shaw was with them, panting from his own injuries.

"We're almost to the pool of the forest spirit," Zuko said, "Just a little farther, keep going."

Blood ran freely from Okkoto's nose and mouth, leaving a river of red behind them.

Shaw made a tired noise, padding alongside them, when he suddenly stopped and lifted his head, growling.

Zuko paused, looking to see the source, just as Okkoto's hoof slipped off a mossy rock. Zuko frantically attempted to catch his leg, but the boar's weight was immense, knocking him away as they both slid down. Zuko smashed his head against another rock, crying out in pain before forcing himself to look around for what had startled Shaw. But now, he heard nothing.

"...what was that?" he asked emptily through watery eyes, before returning to Okkoto's side. The boar was lying on the ground, breathing hard.

"Lord Okkoto, something's wrong," Zuko urged, "We have to keep moving."

Shaw rushed to their side, growling louder still and glaring at a pocket in the woods.

_Something's out there._

"Like what? With so much blood in the air, I can't smell it."

Above, a rain of twigs and sticks came down on them along with the angry chattering of hog-monkeys. Zuko spat, swiping away the wood.

"I should have known it was you!"

 _You did this!_ one hog-monkey replied.

_Because of you, the forest will die!_

"You're wrong! We've all been fighting to SAVE it! This is the thanks you give us?!"

_You bring bad things!_

_Bad things coming, neither human nor animal!_

"What do you mean, neither human nor animal?!"

Elephant-rats and jackalopes were rushing through the undergrowth, running away from something. They pushed their way past Shaw and Zuko without a second thought.

 _They're coming! It's the end for us!_ the hog-monkeys screeched, retreating. The swarms of animals escaping from whatever 'they' were grew only thicker, more frenzied, some even clambering over Zuko and Shaw to get away. The dragon stood his ground, baring his teeth, as Zuko glared hotly at the place they were all running from.

Then, they saw it.

At first glance, it appeared to be a regular bull-pig. Yet the longer they looked, the more wrong they noticed. Eyes were replaced with gaping holes, the face was crooked, and instead of moving on hooved legs, they glided along the forest floor, more joining the first.

"...they're warriors," Zuko breathed, understanding.

Beside him, Okkoto's bloody nostrils flared as his blind eyes widened.

_...they've come back._

Zuko gasped, jumping as Okkoto lurched to his feet.

_My warriors! They have come back to me from the land of the dead!_

He threw back his head, unleashing a war-squeal that sprayed Zuko with thick gobs of blood.

_Forward, my warriors!_

"Lord Okkoto, listen -!"

_Forward, to the pool of the forest spirit!_

"Okkoto! No! Wait!"

The soundless pigskins began to slide after them, making a sinister rustle where feet should be pounding.

"No! Lord Okkoto!" Zuko pleaded, chasing after the boar, "Your warriors haven't come back to you!"

He looked behind themselves as they ran, the bodies gliding behind them like hellish ghosts.

"Those are humans wearing the skins of your warriors to hide their scent!"

There must be dozens, swarming around them on either side.

"It's a trick! Don't you understand?"

But Okkoto's delirium did not break as he blindly staggered through the woods, crashing through rocks and trees with no regard.

"It's just a human trick to get us to lead them to the forest spirit -!"

_Come out, Hei Bai. If you are truly master here, give my warriors the power to slay the humans and save the forest!_

"Stop! Lord Okkoto, PLEASE! You've got to listen!"

 _Zuko!_ Shaw snapped, _They're all around us! Okkoto's done for, leave him!_

"No! I won't let him turn into a demon like Nago did! Tell father that the humans are setting a trap for Hei Bai! He'll know what to do!"

Shaw hesitated, still galloping beside them.

"You have to hurry!" Zuko said, wincing hard as tree branches slapped at him, "Or it could mean the end of all of us!"

Shaw drew near for a moment, allowing Zuko to press his hand to the scales in reassurance.

"Go on now!"

Shaw tore away, perpendicular to the humans, and leapt into the undergrowth.

Okkoto was forced to slow, his wounds taking their toll on him. He staggered to a stop, before crashing onto his side and sending Zuko, who had been clinging to his tusk this whole time, flying briefly into the air with a cry.

He quickly righted himself, fists burning with barely-contained fire as the hidden humans swarmed closer.

"STAY BACK OR YOU DIE! Then this whole forest will see just what you are!"

He could hear a draconic roar in the distance, swaying his attention for just a moment. It was Ran, calling to Shaw. Ran was alive? And he was with...?

"...Sokka...?"

The humans had drawn close, pressing up against Okkoto's flank. The boar god made a horrific squeal of pain, spraying blood around like a waterfall and leaving Zuko to swat them away with hurled fireballs.

"GET BACK!" he screeched like a feral monster, breathing hard.

_...I burn...flames growi **ng inside of me...**_

Zuko turned and screamed in horror at the sight of those vile red tendrils erupting from Okkoto's snout. He frantically swiped at them, trying to knock them off.

"You must fight it! Don't let yourself become a demon!" he begged, "Lord Okkoto -!"

One of the humans took this opportunity to bend a rock, delivering it in a sharp blow to the back of Zuko's head. He made a soft grunt, slumping over into the growing bed of hateful tentacles, unconscious.

In the distance, Shaw roared.

"What is it?" Sokka pressed, as they heard the reply. Ran pricked his ears, listening.

"Is it Zuko?"

_He's in danger._

"Let's go!"

The two leapt off their perch, racing into the woods. Sokka knew that whatever danger Zuko was in, there was little time.

Okkoto had stood again, almost zombie-like. His eyes bulged disgustingly as more and more coils of dark red burst out of his skin. Some fell to the ground, immediately rotting everything they touched and forcing the humans to back away. Okkoto resumed his march to the grove, Zuko hung pathetically off of his tusk, limp body swaying with each step taken.

He stirred, making a horrified gasp as he squirmed and tried to pull himself free, but the tendrils wrapped around his limbs in a death-grip, refusing to relinquish him. Even his bending could not will them back, and it was no surprise why. When he tried to summon his fire, instead he could see those ugly, pulsing things bursting out of his own skin. He cried out in fear, in pain, only to feel them tug him further into the mass of Okkoto's hate. They were pushing their way out of his arms, legs, head. No amount of floundering could free him.

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO BECOME A DEMON!" he sobbed," PLEASE STOP, OKKOTO!"

But the boar did not hear him, or perhaps did not care. He unleashed a sound that was not a piggish squeal as it should be, but sounded like something else. Something monstrous and hellish.

Sokka and Ran raced through the greenery, following Shaw's roared instructions.

_You're too slow! Get on!_

Sokka obliged, climbing aboard Ran's back as the dragon sped over the forest floor and out over a rocky escarpment. He leapt out, landing neatly on a lower part of the sprawling woods and continuing his gallop.

Ahead, Sokka could see more Dai Li, and some of Iron Town's guards. They yelled in shock, clamoring loudly, jumping out of the way, and firing missed shots to try and stop the dragon, but Ran avoided them with agile jumps and weaves, knocking plenty down and away.

Ahead, he saw her. Azula turned to look at the commotion, a smirk playing on her face when she saw him.

"Azula...!"

Ran dodged more blasts, leaping over them as Sokka felt the singe of fire on his back as more shots were taken.

"You keep going!" he said, leaping off as Ran darted through the thick trees, narrowly dodging another bullet.

"AZULA!" Sokka thundered, "I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!"

"Hold your fire!" Long Feng commanded his riflemen.

"What is it you want?!" Azula asked, clearly not in the mood for games. Her hands were poised, ready to incinerate this brat if he crossed her.

"Ukano's men have attacked Iron Town! The women are outnumbered, they can't hold them off for long!"

Zhao stiffened behind Azula as Sokka continued.

"Forget about the forest spirit! Your men are already heading back to Iron Town but they need YOU to lead them!"

"...what proof is there this isn't a lie?" Azula retorted.

"Lie?! Don't be ridiculous!" Sokka hissed, "What reason do I have to lie?!"

"So it's 'don't kill the forest gods', now you want us to kill highwaymen instead?"

"NO! What I want is for the humans and the forest to live in peace!"

And with that, Sokka ran the way Ran had, disappearing into the dark.

"Just whose side is he on, anyway?" Long Feng mused.

"Shouldn't we go back?" Zhao urged, but Azula shook her head.

"The women are on their own now, I've done all I can for them. They can take care of themselves."

Zhao winced, but fell quiet as Azula continued forward.

"There's the pool Chan told us about. The creature must be somewhere nearby."

The men joined her, approaching the sacred glade.

"It's the moment of truth, boys, so keep your eyes peeled," Long Feng said, bringing up the rear. One of his Dai Li hung back, leaning in to whisper to his ear.

"Why do we need that woman, sir."

"When you're going to kill a god, let someone else do the dirty work," Long Feng replied smarmily, before following.

The moon was rising now, a waxing crescent that shed its meager light over the tranquil water, only for it to be agitated by Sokka's splashing. He waded over the shore, looking at the island where he had once lay dying, and wondering where Hei Bai was. He would have to come out, turn into the Black and White Spirit soon. He continued over the enormous roots of the trees and through the deep pockets of water, pausing when he saw a familiar shape of red ahead. It was Fang, laying half-submerged in the water with shadowy eyes shut. Sokka raced closer, horrified.

"Fang...! What happened to you?!"

The father dragon did not respond. Sokka spun on his heels.

"...ZUKO! IT'S ME, SOKKA! ...ZUKOOO!"

In the forest ahead, the demonic Okkoto was still lumbering forward, Zuko buried deep in his mess of tendrils. Deep within them, he heard a familiar voice, calling his name.

_...ZUKOOO!_

"SOKKAAA!" he screamed back, feeling the horrid burn of more coils pushing out of his skin.

Sokka looked around desperately, trying to pinpoint the source. He heard something coming ahead, and though he initially ran forward to meet it, he quickly wished he had not.

The sight of those tentacles made his right arm instinctively sear with pain. Those unseeing eyes stared into his soul.

"Okkoto...turned into a demon..." he said numbly. The humans, hiding in their pig pelts, suddenly rushed into view, encircling Sokka. He could see rocks begin to levitate, sharpening readily.

"Leave, boy."

"Fight me, and Hei Bai will never come," Sokka rebutted, making his way over to Okkoto. Though the humans were unsure if he was telling the truth, they clearly did not want to risk it, lowering the pebbles.

"Lord Okkoto! Calm your fury!" Sokka said, spreading his arms out wide. The boar was not satisfied, stepping forward as yet more hate, with that filthy stink, wormed its way out of his legs.

"O mighty lord, let me have the boy, I beg of you! Please, let him go!"

No response, other than the slap of blood leaking onto the ground, and the quiet hiss of decaying life.

"Zuko! Are you there?! It's me, Sokka!"

The boar-abomination made a skin-crawling squeal, but Sokka was not paying attention - he could see a familiar booted leg, kicking desperately for freedom only to be yanked into the tangle of red coils.

" _ZUKO!_ "

The boar screeched again, a rain of tendrils coming down on Sokka. He grabbed them with his bare hands, not caring, and threw them aside. The humans jumped away, those whose pelts were touched by the tentacles frantically throwing them off to avoid being cursed.

"Kill him!" the Dai Li ordered. A rain of sharpened rocks flew at him, but Sokka dropped to all fours, only grazed as he bolted to Okkoto.

"ZUKO!"

He plowed through the disguised humans, speeding to the demon.

"Stop him! He'll ruin everything!"

But the hatchlings were here, a blur of red and blue as they fell upon the humans and tore the ones that did not flee to shreds.

Sokka leapt up onto Okkoto's tusk, clawing through the tendrils like one would dig through dirt.

"ZUKO!"

It felt the sea of red was impenetrable, and the endless bucking and thrashing of the boar-q-pine was making it hard to stay attached.

"Zuko...!" Sokka cried out, voice faltering. Then he saw it ahead - the glint of a pendant bearing the sign of the Water Tribe. The betrothal necklace, affixed on Zuko's neck. Sokka forced himself closer with the last of his strength, cupping Zuko's cheeks as the dragon prince's head lolled weakly.

"Zuko..." Sokka gasped, pulling him into a tight embrace. Zuko opened his exhausted eyes, making a weak noise.

"Sokka...!"

Okkoto was violently shaking his head, screeching and squealing madly as he tried to fling Sokka off. As hard as he tried to cling to Zuko's arm, he felt himself get yanked away, ejected into the air by the tentacles.

"ZUKO!"

" _SOKKA!_ " Zuko screamed, before being yanked back into the abyss.

Sokka landed on Fang's back before bouncing off and splashing into the lake, sinking to the bottom like a stone and floating there, unconscious.

 _...here I was saving the last of my strength to bite off that damn woman's head..._ Fang sighed in his rumbly voice, opening his eyes, _But I must save Zuko._

"Close ranks! Use your grenades!" the Dai Li said as hatchlings kept them at bay, dodging bomb blasts and snapping at those who got too close. When the fire became too much, they backed away, bolting to their father's side as Fang hauled himself up from the water, facing Okkoto head on. His glaring golden eyes bore deep into those unseeing, bulging ones.

_Don't touch him. He's no longer a god._

Ran and Shaw stepped back a bit as Okkoto took a few steps forward, unleashing a fearsome roar at Fang and spattering his scales with blood.

 _You can't even speak, can you,_ Fang said with a somber smirk.

Long Feng and Azula were hiding in the trees, watching it unfold. He turned to look at his Dai Li.

"Well done, men. Now fall back and get the wounded out of here. Go on."

He leaned forward, watching the demon-boar squeal and stamp his hooves.

"What a revolting spectacle."

Azula said nothing, for she was not looking at the gorey sight. She cocked her gun loudly. Long Feng followed her gaze, and felt his eyes widen, felt sweat bead on his forehead.

"It's him..."

Hei Bai was on the centermost island, quietly stepping off and walking atop the water towards the two other gods at the shoreline. Azula tightened her grip on her rifle, waiting for the right moment.

Sick of Fang getting in his way, Okkoto charged forward, slamming into his shoulder, but even in his sickly state Fang was stronger and refused to budge.

_Give me back my son, demon!_

He bit down on the tendrils as they wrapped around his muzzle and neck, chewing through them and feeling for his child.

Hei Bai continued his silent approach, drawing close.

Suddenly, the demon stopped its incessant noises, falling still. Even the coils of hate receded and settled, turning into grayish sludge as Fang withdrew with something in his mouth.

 _Sokka..._ he said weakly, _Can you save the boy you love?_

Sokka lurched awake under the water, coughing hard as he used his feet to propel himself upward from the pool floor. He surfaced with a gasp, just in time to see the panda god quietly striding over the water towards him, Fang, and Okkoto.

A gun went off, a loud boom followed by a sickly quick _flit_ noise. The bullet had gone right through Hei Bai's neck. His face contorted briefly, a silent expression - of pain? Fear? Anger? Sokka had no idea - playing briefly over it. The boy gasped in horror, watching the front paws of the stunned forest god sink a little into the water as he looked for the source of the shot, spotting Lady Azula in the undergrowth.

"AZULA! HOLD YOUR FIRE!" he yelled. 

Then, as if nothing had happened, Hei Bai quietly lifted his head up, his characteristic eerie smile visible again. He stepped back up to the water's surface, approaching the gods.

"Azula! Your enemy's not the forest spirit!" Sokka cried to her, swimming after Hei Bai.

"But that should have killed it!" Long Feng protested.

"He's a god, it will take more than one shot," Azula said calmly.

Okkoto was backing away from the forest spirit, clearly petrified of it, as Fang withdrew with an enormous glob of sludge in his maw. Hei Bai continued to close in on the boar as Sokka bolted ashore.

"Zuko!"

He took the mass of black from Fang, returning to the water and leaping in to wash it away.

"Don't die...!" he begged, submerging them both and holding the seemingly lifeless Zuko in a tight embrace.

Okkoto was frozen, unmoving, as Hei Bai quietly leaned in, touching their muzzles together. Okkoto's eyes slowly drifted shut as he crashed to his side, dead. Fang seemingly joined him, thudding limply to the sand.

"...I don't get it. The Great Forest Spirit took their lives away," Long Feng said, confused. Azula said nothing - she was waiting for something that was due to happen soon. Sure enough, Hei Bai was looking up to the heavens, to the moon - it was time to become the Black and White Spirit.

Under the moon's beams, his body began to change, elongating and becoming ethereal, two new limbs appearing as his snout grew long and white.

"Quick! He's starting to change!" Long Feng urged.

"Now watch closely, everyone," Azula said with an air of smugness, "I'm going to show you how to kill a god. A god of life and death."

She readied herself.

"The trick is not to fear him."

She darted out onto the mossy shoreline, getting to a vantage point to fire.

Under the water, Sokka had cleared away the muck, and was swimming back to the surface with the limpid Zuko in his hands. He drew in a sharp breath at the sight of the half-transformed forest spirit before him, before he caught a glint of metal out of the corner of his eye. He turned, seeing Lady Azula aiming her gun.

"NO! STOP!" he screeched, throwing his sword with the same precision as his boomerang, lodging it in the wooden forestock of the rifle. It was just enough to throw off her line of sight, making her stumble.

"Azula -!" he snarled venomously, wading out with Zuko in his arms.

She smirked, then turned her attention back to Hei Bai. He had seen her now, looking at her with his smile.

Suddenly, flowers and mushrooms began to sprout out of her gun, lodging the hammer and preventing it from firing. The leaves and vines encircled the weapon, rendering it useless. She hurriedly tried to scrub them off, making an angry yell.

"YOU _WILL_ DIE!" she shouted, before forgoing the hammer and using her firebending to ignite the bullet. The rifle went off in a cloud of smoke, right into the sensitive, half-transformed neck of the forest spirit. It blew apart in a golden, godly explosion of dust, his head tumbling to the forest floor as the decapitated body stood stock-still.

Sokka made a noise of dread, as even Zuko jerked awake. A revulsed cry ripped from his mouth at the sight of the head bouncing on the moss, the body forcibly returning to its fully panda form.

"She did it!" Long Feng cheered, "Quickly! Go get the head!"

But something was not right. A large black bubble was beginning to ebb out of the panda's neck. A void-like liquid, iridescent and yet filled with rage. Zuko gasped at the sight, clinging to Sokka, as even Azula took a step back.

Suddenly, the bubble erupted, tendrils of it shooting out every which way. Azula barely dodged one, the grass behind her decaying and rotting immediately. Another arm shot over the water, forcing Sokka and Zuko to jump out of the way as it beaded on the lake. Still another crashed over the men in the trees, and those unable to run to safety in time had their breath stolen, ripped out of their lungs as their hearts ceased to beat.

Splotches of the hateful substance clung to the trees, killing them immediately. A rain of dead lemurs began to fall all around them as more and more of the vile sludge percolated out of the body, forming a hideous demon that made Nago and Okkoto look like tiny pests in comparison.

Azula weaved between the killer drops, grabbing Hei Bai's head from the lone patch of green grass left, holding it up by its ear.

"Quick, Long Feng! Bring me that box of yours!" she barked.

"The porters are all dead! Hurry! HURRY!" Long Feng called to his surviving men. As they struggled to carry the box closer, some were grazed by the ick, immediately collapsing where they stood.

"Be careful not to touch the spirit's body!" Azula called, "It'll suck the life out of you!"

One such piece of the body lay across Fang's neck. By all accounts, he should have been dead. But he opened a piercing eye, turning to look at the damn woman who had killed his forest and now his master.

"Here it is, one head, as promised!"

Azula threw it to the eager Long Feng, who caught it with a gleeful noise.

"WATCH OUT!" Zhao bellowed, racing to his lady's side, but it was too late - the severed head of Fang had wiggled its way closer, leaping up with full intent to crunch Azula's head in his jaws. It was only because she turned so slightly that the dragon missed, tearing off her arm instead before bouncing into a piece of the spirit's body.

Azula swayed a bit, watching blood flood from her missing limb.

"Milady!" Zhao caught her, holding her close.

"I told you a wolf's head can still bite..." she said numbly.

"Come on!" Long Feng said, shoving the head into his iron box and sealing it shut as he and the remaining three Dai Li picked up the wooden holster, "We've got to get out of here! Hurry!"

"It's coming, sir!"

Almost like a demonic hand, an appendage of sludge reached out after them as they ran back the way they came in a panic. The spirit's remains now resembled more of a body, as pulsing arms and legs exuded from a goopy torso. Zhao looked around in fear, trying to find a safe place to stand as the glade became rapidly populated with the vile muck.

Sokka, who had been swimming under the water's surface where it was safe, hauled himself to shore.

"Zhao! We gotta get to the island!" he said, taking Lady Azula from him.

"Island? I can't swim!"

"Then walk along the bottom!"

Sokka swam quickly, pulling Lady Azula along as a trail of blood billowed after her in the water. Zhao quickly pulled his armor off to rid himself of drag, carefully stepping along the bottom of the pool after them as the droplets of black above sped along the surface.

The three emerged at the center island, where Zuko already was. He was staring daggers at Sokka as his brothers sat beside him, visibly hurting over the death of their father, their master, their home.

"Give her to me! I'll cut her throat!" Zuko snarled, stamping his foot at Sokka as he pulled Azula ashore.

"Your clan has been avenged," Sokka told him, removing his tunic and wrapping it around Azula's remaining bit of arm, "Your father saw to that. Here..."

The demon mark had spread unbridled across Sokka's shoulders and chest, yet somehow against the scale of the destruction around them, it seemed minute.

"Lady Azula...!"

"Help me," Sokka pushed, Zhao holding the fabric in place as he tied it tight. Zuko was quivering with barely-restrained fury.

"Don't waste your sympathy," Azula said hoarsely, wincing in pain.

"I promised Ty Lee that I'd bring you back to Iron Town," Sokka said, before looking behind him as the now somewhat-formed spirit's body was crouched, pushing aside dead trees, feeling blindly about.

"He's searching for his head. We can't stay here. Zuko, you have to help us -"

The dragon prince stepped away from him, fists clenched.

"NO! You're on _their_ side, you always were!"

Sokka stood, reaching for him.

"Take that damn woman and just GO AWAY!"

Sokka flinched back, watching Zuko reach up and tear the betrothal necklace off his neck.

"Zuko -"

"NEVER! I HATE _ALL_ OF YOU HUMANS!"

Sokka held those golden eyes somberly.

"...yes, I'm human, Zuko...but, so are you."

" _STOP IT!_ I'M A DRAGON, YOU HEAR?!"

Sokka stepped closer, reaching his arms slowly around Zuko.

"Zuko..."

"STAY BACK!"

The prince made an unholy noise, slamming two flaming fists into Sokka's chest. They should have burned, two spots of white-hot pain - and yet, to the callous demon mark, it felt like nothing. Zuko stared, breathing hard, as Sokka quietly roped his arms around him, pulling him into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry...I tried to stop it."

The monster was pulling itself up to its feet behind them, sending dead trees crashing down around them as Zuko sobbed.

"It's over..." he wept, clinging to Sokka, "Everything's over...the forest is dead..."

Holding Azula on his back, Zhao looked around at the death around them, as ashen trees and dead plants fell to the ground, the water turbulent from all the debris.

"Nothing is over," Sokka said firmly, looking into Zuko's eyes, "The two of us are still alive. Now will you help me, Zuko?"

The abomination had climbed on top of the canopy, standing upright and letting its body diffuse across the sky. More and more arms reached out of this spreading cloud of darkness, plunging into the forest to feel for its head, and wherever they moved, the forest died.

The other humans in the forest were racing out in a mob, with Long Feng and the three survivors bringing along the head.

"Look out!"

One hand came crashing down, barely missing them and causing them to tumble into a small ravine. Long Feng could see the lid of the iron box shaking violently.

"Look! The head is moving!" he said, pointing, "It's calling him to us!"

The black sludge oozed down into the ravine, chasing them as they fled. Now that the demon knew where its head was, it focused all its unwavering attention after it.

* * *

Iron Town had finally fallen quiet - a ceasefire had occurred after sunset as both parties took the time to rest. There were thousands of dead bodies littering what remained of the town, and the surviving women, men, and war victims had taken shelter to catch what sleep they could. Those who could not stayed watch, like Ty Lee and one of the bandaged women. Ty Lee peered out at the horizon through the slats of wood as her companion carefully hammered at her rifle, adjusting the fit.

"There you go, Ty Lee. It shouldn't jam anymore."

Ty Lee took it back gratefully, knowing she would need it soon.

"Thanks..."

"It's awfully quiet..."

"Ukano's waiting for sunrise."

"I wonder if that young man ever found Lady Azula."

"Don't worry about him, he found her, alright," Ty Lee said with a warm laugh, "They'll be marching over that hill any minute now."

The bandaged woman handed her some bread to eat as Chan stirred in his sleep, snoring. Ty Lee looked at him with a sigh.

"Big dope...don't ask me why I love him. Hey! Chan!"

She shook his arm.

"Oh, let him sleep, Ty Lee, while he can," the girl admonished.

There came a sudden distant crackling and a rushing noise, like water. The other women jumped awake, gathering to see what the cause was.

"What's that?"

"I don't know...but I don't like it," Ty Lee said lowly.

Something was coming over the mountain. At first they thought it was more soldiers in dark pockets, but they realized it was something else - almost like black lava, gushing down the slope. Behind it, the hideous form of a demon stood up, climbing over the hill. The girls gasped in fear.

"It's the Black and White Spirit!" Ty Lee said, recognizing the patterns.

Ukano's men had already awoken, and no amount of iron was worth whatever that was. They began to retreat from their camps, racing to get away on their komodo-rhinos or on foot as the sludge came rushing after them.

"Everybody, hold your positions!" Ty Lee commanded.

"Ty Lee, it's coming right at us!"

"Run! We gotta go!" Chan pleaded.

"No! We promised Lady Azula we would defend Iron Town!"

The monster made long strides over the land as two familiar dots of blue and red could be seen running on the sand, on their backs two riders.

"Look! Over there! He's come back!" Ty Lee said, pointing gleefully.

Sokka leapt off of Ran to address the women.

"Get everyone out! The great spirit's head has been cut off, and he wants it back! If that black ooze touches you, you're dead! Run for the lake, the water will slow it down!"

The girls listened closely as the hatchlings squirmed, watching the dark sludge near.

"Lady Azula and the men are on their way from the other side! I'm going to try and return his head before he kills us all! Hurry!"

He clambered back onto Ran as he and Shaw sped off like bullets, narrowing avoiding the toxic muck. The woman began to make panicked chatter, looking to each other in fear as questions were thrown out.

"That's enough!" Ty Lee barked, "Get everyone down to the lake, and stay calm! We can carry the sick and the wounded!"

The remaining citizens of Iron Town obliged, racing out of the inner wall with some hoisting others on their backs or in their arms. The demonic liquid had reached the outer wall, and was beginning to pour into the town as the survivors hurried to the exit.

"Not that way! Stop!" Ty Lee called after those who took the bridge instead of the side-path to the piers, but it was too late - the sludge chased after them, swallowing them up as Ty Lee was forced to run to the water. It had even made its way into the ironworks, sending it up in flames.

"Agh! There it goes!" Chan said, pointing with his good arm as Ty Lee turned to look, supporting one of the war victims on her back.They could see the roof engulfed in fire.

"We're done for..." Chan said defeatedly, "Once the forge burns, that's it! That'll be the end of Iron Town!"

"We're still alive, Chan!" Ty Lee said furrowing her brow, "We'll manage somehow! Now let's go!"

Above the burning ironworks, the demon continued its march, as Ran and Shaw raced against it to the top of the mountain, looking for Long Feng and the box as they avoided the sludge.

"There they are!" Zuko said, pointing, as the hatchlings steered towards it. Sure enough, Long Feng and his surviving Dai Li were scrambling up the mountain with the box. Somehow, the dead, treeless landscape looked normal now.

The dragons came to a halt, allowing their riders to disembark.

"Go!" Zuko instructed, allowing them to escape as he and Sokka blocked the passage of the men any further.

"Stop right there!" Sokka snapped.

"Ah! You're both alive, oh, how nice..." Long Feng muttered.

"I'm giving the creature back its head, put the box down and back away!" Sokka demanded, stepping closer.

"Give the head back _now?_ Come on, boy! Don't be silly! Now, when the sun is about to come up? Look!"

They looked up at the hulking demon above.

"He's a brainless, swollen, life-sucking god of death, but at sunrise he'll vanish like a bad dream!"

"Sir! It's coming! We gotta get out of here!" Jet pleaded.

"Don't force me to kill you," Sokka growled.

"Oh dear, you make it sound so very easy," Long Feng chuckled, "Show me, then!"

He flicked his hand, and rocks began to fly as he charged them. Sokka fell back a bit as one of the other Dai Li chased after Zuko - though, his firebending was too strong and he swiftly knocked the agent out.

"Get going!" Long Feng shouted, continuing his assault on the weaponless nonbender. Sokka dodged and strafed and kept his hands up in front of his face, glancing whenever he could to see where the box was going. Zuko was chasing after it, but seemed even the remnants of Hei Bai had the same idea. A many-fingered hand reached out, stopping in front of the two carrying the box and forcing them to stop. Desperate, they threw down the box, Zuko scrambling after it as it rolled away while the two men fled.

"Sokka!"

"I got it!" Long Feng said, leaping to catch it and rolling down the remainder of the mountain with it. When he smashed to a stop at a large boulder, he quickly scrambled on top of it with the box, looking as the lake of black began to encircle him. Sokka and Zuko climbed up with him as the ooze fully wrapped around the rock.

"Master! We're surrounded!" the one remaining Dai Li said as he joined them in a panic.

"Come on, sun! Rise!" Long Feng was calling to the horizon.

"Open the box!" Sokka thundered.

"Don't you see?! It's too late for that now!" Long Feng retorted.

"Why are you wasting your breath talking to him?" Zuko snarled, fists burning.

"Human hands must return it!" Sokka pressed.

"Ugh...don't say I didn't warn you," Long Feng acquiesced, unsealing the iron box. A flood of green fluid rushed out, perhaps the forest spirit's blood, as Sokka removed the lid and retrieved the panda head. He and Zuko lifted it up together, as high as they could go. Zuko made a fearful gasp as demon marks began to appear all over his body where the green liquid touched.

"FOREST SPIRIT HEI BAI! WE GIVE YOU BACK YOUR HEAD! TAKE IT, AND BE AT PEACE!" Sokka shouted as loud as he could.

The demon above them paused, as if listening, then slowly began to lower itself closer. It extended out its body as Sokka roped his arm around Zuko's waist, holding him tight.

The god's body wrapped around them in a blinding flash of green light.

Its head was returned.

The Iron Town survivors huddling in the water watched the distant shape as it slowly began to right itself.

"Well...I think it's over..." Chan said softly.

A cheer went up behind them.

"Look! It's the men!"

"The men! The men are back!"

The four boats swam closer as the other half of Iron Town whooped and hollered, except for Zhao who was cradling Azula silently.

"Milady! You're here!" Ty Lee said, swimming closer.

"Be careful! My ladyship has been injured!" Zhao cautioned.

Hei Bai, or whatever was left of him, had righted himself, staring out at the sun as it came over the distant horizon. He seemed to draw one large, final breath, as his legs disappeared below him.

Then, in a graceful fall, he collapsed down, directly onto the burning Iron Town.

When it made contact, an enormous wind ripped itself from the body, blasting at everything and everyone with a vicious ferver.

"HANG ON TIGHT, EVERYBODY! DON'T LET GO!" Ty Lee screamed as everyone clung to each other.

Large pieces of Iron Town itself was blown into the sky, as was the black sludge. The fire was squelched by the wind as the chunks blew to the dead, brown mountains.

Then, the wind stopped.

The townspeople squinted ahead, at first not daring to believe what they saw. But it was true. The brown was becoming green. Flowers and grass and moss and saplings began to push their way up out of the soil as the hills turned to vibrant shades of color. Even the shell of Iron Town began to bloom. They could see now how it looked like the beautiful island it had once been, against a brilliant landscape of forests.

"...huh..." Chan said, as the bandaged men and women around him looked down in shock at their skin, which was now clean of burn scars and wounds, "I didn't know the forest spirit made the flowers grow..."

Yakul was galloping up the hill, looking for his companion now that his wound had healed. He found Ran and Shaw nestled on the rock, pleased to see him, and at their feet in the grass were Zuko and Sokka, still clinging to each other. Yakul lowered his head, tickling Sokka's head to wake him.

"Mmm..."

Sokka lifted his head, then drew in a sharp breath, looking around at the lush greenery.

"...Zuko! Zuko, look!"

Zuko lifted his head sleepily, then sat bolt upright. The two raced to the edge of the mountain, looking out at the reborn landscape. When the trees regrew, it may look like it had never been touched by humanity.

"...even if all the trees return, it won't be his forest anymore..." Zuko said sadly, "Hei Bai is dead now."

"Never. He's life itself. He's not dead, Zuko, he's right here, trying to tell us something."

Sokka looked down at his arm, at the tan skin, free of his curse.

"...that it's time for both of us...to live."

* * *

Zuko climbed atop Shaw, looking down at the one human he loved.

"...Sokka, you mean so much to me," he said softly, "But I can't forgive the humans for what they've done."

"I understand. You'll live in the forest, and I'll go help them rebuild Iron Town," Sokka said, "I'll always be near. Yakul and I will come and visit you, whenever we can, alright?"

Zuko smiled wetly, nodding and wiping his eyes. He touched a finger to the betrothal necklace, which he had hung around his neck again, before he and his brothers headed back into what remained of the trees.

Back in Iron Town, under the shelter of vines and leaves, the survivors had gathered around Lady Azula.

"...amazing..." she said softly, "The dragons and that crazy little dragon boy helped save us all..."

She lifted her head.

"Sokka...can someone find him? I need to thank him. We're going to start all over again. This time we'll build a better town."

Long Feng had survived, though now he lived with the shame of his failure, and only one surviving Dai Li agent at his side.

"...well, I give up," he exhaled, "Can't win against fools."

Somewhere deep in the forest, by the remnants of the glade, one single winged lemur landed on a bough. He chattered inquisitively, looking around. This place would make a good home.

**Author's Note:**

> Any comments/kudos are appreciated greatly.  
> I hope you enjoyed! This was my first ever ATLA fanfic so feedback is welcome.
> 
> Follow http://tiefling-notebook.tumblr.com/ for more content!  
> (Main blog: http://tired-tiefling.tumblr.com/)


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